Patrick Christys: We are creating a two tier society when it comes to the vaccine

Can I see your papers please? No, this isn’t the Communist eastern bloc, and I am not the Stasi.... I’m just doing an impression of nightclub owners across the country because it looks as though we’re about to enter ‘papers please Britain’.

Vaccine passports appear to have arrived, and large venues and gatherings may be forced to adopt them. People say, well you already have to show an ID to get into a nightclub. Yes, fine, but in order to get my ID I didn’t have to inject something into my body, twice, potentially three times a charm, every single year probably for the rest of my life.

Is this coercion? I believe the answer to that question is yes. Why? Well let’s ask ourselves the question – do you think most young people are getting the vaccine because they actually want it, or because they want to have freedom in their social lives. I suspect it’s the latter, and, if it is, then that’s coercion.

If you think it’s not so bad, fine, but we’re at the top of a very slippery slope – Australia has just announced that if you don’t get a vaccine you’ll be denied medical care. They’ll essentially let you die if you don’t get the jab. So politicians do have it in them to do this kind of stuff.

There are strong rumours that this may not actually go through, that they’re just saying it to ensure maximum uptake of the jab. Well, that’s coercion isn’t it. Overt coercion. If they don’t go through with it and it turns out they’re only saying it to scare people into getting the jab..... then if you look up the word coercion in the dictionary then all you’ll see is a big picture of Nadhim Zahawi’s face looming down at you.

And while we're here, let’s have a chat about our vaccines minister shall we?– Old Nadhim.

“I think mandating vaccinations is discriminatory and completely wrong,”- not my words, they’re the words of Mr Zahawi.

“We have no plans to introduce vaccine passports. No-one has been given or will be required to have a vaccine passport.” Zahawi again.

The baddest baroness in the business, Claire Fox, asked him if we could hold him to this, he said yes, but trying to hold a government minister to anything these days is like trying to catch water, it simply can’t be done. So either ministers are lying to us about introducing vaccine passports to ensure maximum uptake of the vaccine, or they were just lying to us to begin with about not introducing them. Either way, it’s not great is it?

Then there’s the line they’re wheeling out – “we’re introducing them so venues won’t have to keep opening and shutting on short notice.”

No, because they’ll just shut forever. Apparently the mark-up for nightclubs is about 15%, well depending on what source you look at between about 25-30% of 18 to 29 year olds haven’t had the jab yet. So if they’re not allowed to go to nightclubs then it could put them out of business. And then there’s the practical madness of this.

Getting the jab doesn’t stop you contracting covid or passing it on. So whether or not I show a vaccine passport at the door of Fabric nightclub is for the birds. Why not, I don’t know, require proof of a negative test instead? No, that’s too much like common sense isn’t it. It’s not just nightclubs by the way, theatre owners are worried this could be the final nail in their coffin.

We are creating a two tier society – the haves and the have nots when it comes to the vaccine. This government seems perfectly happy to ignore the views of industry experts, their fears for their future, and press ahead with vaccine passports. This government seems perfectly happy to ignore the advice of the experts at the JCVI which says that it would essentially be unethical to vaccinate 12-15-year-olds.

When Michael Gove said he’d had enough of experts I didn’t realise this was what he meant. If we are about to enter a papers please society, I’d like to hand a few government ministers a paper of their own. The only difference is that this one has P45 written on it.