Phil Booth Profile picture
Mind 'for hire'; critical friend to just causes. Currently also @medConfidential; formerly @NO2ID

Jul 31, 2021, 13 tweets

So the Gov't has gone from promising a review of #VaccinePassports in February...

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-561696…

to officials saying #domestic uses are "dead" and "not going to happen" in May...

independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

to the review stating they won't be #mandated in early July...

...to @BorisJohnson announcing they WILL be #mandatory for (mostly) young people from the end of September:

thetimes.co.uk/article/labour…

Meanwhile, and despite MONTHS of denials*, it turns out the Government has already spent £23.6 million on #VaccinePassports 👇 and has already cut deals that could run until 2023 at least...

inews.co.uk/news/politics/…

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*

Given the all the #FalseDenials and #misinformation, any official claim that #VaccinePassports are not #IDcards by the #backdoor is clearly not worth the breath it takes to express.

A fact underlined by statements from the firm the Gov't just commissioned to further #pollute...

...the #NHSapp, which was designed as a way for people to manage their own #care but which is now being turned to more sinister "#PapersPlease" purposes in a classic, entirely #predictable and #predicted case of #FeatureCreep:

entrust.com/blog/2021/02/v…

Jenn Markey may not be the new Katherine Courtney*, and @sajidjavid may not think he's the next David Blunkett - but the Government is taking the same 'frog-boiling' approach to the introduction of #IDcards that @ukhomeoffice did in the noughties...

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*computerweekly.com/news/224007521…

...under Tony Blair - himself a huge #VaccinePassports #cheerleader 🤔 - all the while trying desperately to get you to call them anything OTHER than a "#passport".

What the #PR & #nudge merchants call them's irrelevant; "#VaccineCertificate", "#COVIDstatus", "#COVIDpass"...

...because, as anyone paying attention knows, if official #ID (@ukhomeoffice, @NHSX, @DCMS, #GDS...) can be #demanded of you without #explicit #LegalBasis just to go about your #business, do your #job, live your #life then you aren't #free.

Nor are ANY of us, under such regimes.

Domestic #VaccinePassports are neither #necessary nor #proportionate; even @michaelgove's review said so*.

And, as has become increasingly clear, @NHSX's app-based intervention is 'laissez-faire' #discriminatory and not even...

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*assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

"disproportionate"

...all that #effective at either an #individual or #PublicHealth level*.

Turning imperfect #vaccination or #TestResults into a #digital #IDcard doesn't make 'em any more reliable, but it DOES create #PerverseIncentives...

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*Again from the #GoveReview of #VaccinePassports:

...so let's stop with the #FrogBoiling, the #lying and #prevarications. If Government wants there to be #domestic #VaccinePassports, IT MUST SAY SO.

#Unequivocally, in a Bill.

No more dodgy #regulations, not by Ministerial #fiat, nor #unaccountable #liability-shifting either...

...for a move as profound as the introduction of ANY new #official #ID, FULL #legislative due process is required - not just cursory COVID-style "Parliamentary scrutiny".

And even if this Government does manage to pass such a #law, we can and WILL get it #repealed.

Again.

Additional background on #Parliamentary position:

"No justification for #COVIDpassports, say @CommonsPACAC"

committees.parliament.uk/committee/327/…

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