The Prime Minister has signalled that he would not prevent pubs from demanding that drinkers prove they have had a Covid vaccine before entering. Such ideas have previously been dismissed by Government officials as “discriminatory”. The Times has the story.
Pub landlords will be able to bar entry to people who have not been vaccinated, Boris Johnson has suggested.
The Prime Minister said that it “may be up to the landlord” to decide whether to require proof of vaccination or a negative test from customers, in a significant change of heart after ruling out the idea last month. …
A month ago Johnson said that while the Government would look at vaccine passports for international travel, “what I don’t think we will have in this country is – as it were – vaccination passports to allow you to go to, say, the pub or something like that”.
Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, is now leading a review into the idea. He is due to report by June.
The idea is being opposed by many Tory backbenchers and pressed on whether it went against his liberal instincts, Johnson said that he had been “thinking very, very deeply” about the issue.
“The public have been thinking very deeply about it and my impression is that there is a huge wisdom in the public’s feeling about this and people, human beings, instinctively recognise when something is dangerous, nasty to them, and they can see that Covid is collectively a threat, and they want us as their Government, and me as the Prime Minister, to take all the actions I can to protect them.”
He said that people having to prove they were not infectious was “the kind of thing that may be up to the individual publicans, it may be up to the landlord”.
It is likely that vaccination will become mandatory for care home staff, along with other healthcare workers. This, alongside the prospect of Covid “certificates“, and the latest suggestion regarding pubs, begs the question: to what extent can the Covid vaccine really be called voluntary? Steve Baker, the Deputy Chairman of the Covid Recovery Group, has said that such requirements would create a “two-tier Britain”.
The Prime Minister began to tread a dangerous path when he opened the door to domestic Covid certificates. First they said we’ll need them to watch the football, and today that it may be papers for the pub.
Whether the state legislates for it, recommends it or simply allows it, the result will be the same – a two-tier Britain that prevents pregnant women from taking part in society, given that the Government is telling them not to take the vaccine, or one where we turn back the clock and tolerate businesses turning away customers from communities which have shown an unfortunate hesitancy to take up the offer of a vaccine. We must not fall into this ghastly trap.
The Times report is worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Toby says a bloke on his street in Acton has already offered to sell him a vaccine passport. It seems a racing certainty that the attitude of the British public – which Boris seems to set so much store by – will be to enthusiastically endorse ‘Passports for Pubs’, then cheat en masse. The man on the Clapham omnibus is a strange hybrid of Captain Mainwaring and Private Walker.
Stop Press 2: Readers can still submit responses to the ‘Covid-Status Certification Review’ until March 29th. Details here.
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I have had an English sparkling wine on a couple of occasions and have been very satisfied on both occasions, one of those being celebrating Boris’ (nearly) Brexit day.
I would also have liked some commentsry on “clones”.
As I vaguely understand the wine industry, it has successfully bred variants of eg chardonnay vines which mature earlier and flower later to reduce frost risk
The Romans produced wine from vineyards as far north as Lincolnshire. There is some evidence of vineyards around York.
48 vineyards are apparently detailed in The Doomsday book. Wine making in Britain isn’t new.
The hillsides where I live in SW England have ancient terraces dotted around which are generally thought to be old Roman vineyards. It was warmer then too, but of course we’re not supposed to mention that, are we?
I attended a very interesting lecture about wine production in England at Denbies (about 15 years ago).
Wine production was extensive in Roman times and only died out after the Romans left and England was colonised by the Germanic tribes of northern Europe who had a beer-drinking tradition.
Excellent and informative article, I particularly enjoyed the historical excursion back to the 18th Century.
This is also one of the rare instances where ‘Climate Change’ propagandising points to what (if true) would be a positive consequence of alleged temperature increases, as opposed to the usual ‘we’re all going to both melt and drown’ apocalyptic terrorising.
Having said that increases in wine production are probably also seen as a terrible menace by the fundamentally anti-joy and misanthropic Green movement, the direct inheritors of the authoritarian and miserabilist 17th century Puritan ideology and agenda (though with an even more negative and dead-end atheistic spin)
I see pigs will fart a semi tone higher by 2100 because of global warming. We must ACT NOW
All the best in the trade! I buy the odd bottle of English white wine, quite often from Lyme Bay Winery via my regular supermarket. I suspect that there have been other issues compared with the weather that have had an effect on it all. E.g. grapevine diseases (that wiped out quite a few vineyards in parts of France), and the levels of excise duty imposed by the Treasury.
Not to mention the female staff of our Education, Health and social services, none of whom could seemingly survive without drinking themselves insensitive on an endless supply of cheapish white wine. (When men had tough and stressful jobs and had a pint or two after work, they dreamed up prohibition…btw).
Well, if you believe in this story: https://www.gbnews.uk/news/king-charles-secret-drinking-habit-revealed-every-night-before-dinner/384410 there’s not much risk of prohibition for the time being!
Great article; thanks.
‘The author of this piece wants to remain anonymous to protect his career as a budding vitner.’
Which explains exactly what the Pagan Environmentalist Religion is about.
England’s Wines boom without climate change
Yellow Freedom Boards – next event
Thursday 10th November 11am to 12pm
Yellow Boards
Junction B3408 London Rd &
John Nike Way, Binfield
Bracknell RG42 4FZ
Stand in the Park Sundays 10.30am to 11.30am – make friends & keep sane
Wokingham
Howard Palmer Gardens Sturges Rd RG40 2HD
Bracknell
South Hill Park, Rear Lawn, RG12 7PA