by UnHerd
Friday, 9
April 2021
Video
11:57

Russell Brand’s vaccine passport crusade

The comedian is asking the right questions — but will anyone listen?
by UnHerd

“Is it right” asked Russell Brand on his YouTube channel this week, “that big tech companies, and the state, are given the power to determine whether or not you can enjoy every day freedoms?”

In the early 2010s the comedian became a lightning rod, or a punching bag, due to his political interventions. He guest-edited the New Statesman. He was interviewed by Jeremy Paxman, when he said that voting was a waste of time. Ed Miliband sank considerable political capital into getting Brand to endorse him during the 2015 election — which didn’t quite work out for either of them. Owen Jones compared Brand to George Orwell (and Brand compared Owen Jones to… George Orwell).


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It was easy to be rude about Brand. Others, like the late political theorist Mark Fisher, saw in Brand’s politics a new vision of the Left that refused to moralise or scold its opponents. “Brand makes people feel good about themselves” Fisher wrote, “whereas the moralising Left specialises in making people feed bad, and is not happy until their heads are bent in guilt and self-loathing.”

The moralising Left won, and became dominant towards the end of the decade. Brand podcasted, and did more yoga. Will people listen to his intervention on vaccine passports?

One of the risks is that it creates a two-tier society. People that have been vaccinated and can provide proof of it will have access to all manner of utilities that will be denied to people who don’t want a vaccine, can’t afford a vaccine, are suspicious of vaccines, and don’t participate in life. There are all sorts of social issues that come to the forefront: economic issues, race and class issues that are all highlighted by something like a mandated passport. Not to mention the idea that we were assured that there would never be an ID card — a Covid passport in this country is an ID card by another name.
- Russell Brand

“Are we moving towards ID cards by stealth?” Brand continues, “And further empowering massive, centralised authorities that we have good reason to distrust?” It’s a question that is worth asking — but one that has been ignored ever since the pandemic started.

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Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
1 year ago

It is embarrassing that these questions have to be asked in what is supposed to be a free society. Anyone who believes this “passport” would be self-contained around covid is living in an alternate universe. Govt initiatives only know one way – expansion. If a vaccine can be used to regulate who can participate in everyday transactions in a supposedly free society, then other data will be included later on.

Galeti Tavas
Galeti Tavas
1 year ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

Revelations 13:16, and all great and small, free or bound, rich or poor, must wear the Mark of the Beast on hand or forehead or they may not buy or sell.

Mike M
Mike M
1 year ago
Reply to  Galeti Tavas

Revelation 22:7 “And behold, I am coming soon”
Looked at the calendar lately?

Last edited 1 year ago by Mike M
Helen Hughes
Helen Hughes
1 year ago

We seem to have been heading for this all along and I think that is why some have been much more alarmed at lockdowns etc than others – they could see a bit further, see a bigger picture. It is just really hard to talk about it all without the “conspiracy theory” label being bandied about, which shuts down discussion. Now this issue has come to the fore, will it open a door to these questions as being legitimate and important to listen to? It’s not about denying there is a nasty viral illness out there, it’s about how far we are prepared to let governments go in trying to prevent it, however uncomfortable such discussions are.

Bertie B
Bertie B
1 year ago
Reply to  Helen Hughes

You can see how this is going to go…
Someone gets refused access to a service because the NHS just hasn’t got round to vaccinating them yet. Government has legal issues.

Someone else refuses to have the vaccine on religious grounds, then gets refused access to a service. Business has legal trouble.

Someone else can’t have the vaccine for medical reasons and the government issues a certificate to say they are exempt. Person refuses to use it as it would reveal private medical information to people who have no reason for it.

Actually come to that – having a passport saying you have a vaccine is also revealing medical information to people. I’m pretty sure that in order to even look at a passport they need a Data protection processing statement and proof that you have opted in. If nothing else this is a beauracratic nightmare for all businesses.

Last edited 1 year ago by Bertie B
Galeti Tavas
Galeti Tavas
1 year ago
Reply to  Bertie B

Business will have no legal trouble. They will say where is your passport, you say you refuse to have one, they say they refuse to serve you. And that is that.

Anyway this is nothing. Central Bank Crypto currencies are almost here. China is allready releasing its block chain Renminbi, soon to be the only currency.

Then every nation must release its own to keep market share and control of its money as it will become the unit of commerce as you phone clutching sheep will immediately adopt it, and so it will become the only medium of exchange retailers will accept. Crypto Euros, $, Rubles, Rand, Rupees….

And then the iron curtain descends on your freedoms as your crypto wallet will become your social credit score, it will carry every transaction you ever make and 100% ID you, will be broadcasting your presence and everywhere, everything, of you will be ‘Seen By The Great Eye. as in Mordor.

kathleen carr
kathleen carr
1 year ago
Reply to  Galeti Tavas

However if a part of the population that travels a lot doesn’t like to be vaccinated ( even for normal childhood illnesses) their MPs aren’t going to be very happy are they-which will make the passports unworkable.

Dave Smith
Dave Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  Galeti Tavas

Which is why gold and silver are going to make a comeback.

Dennis Boylon
Dennis Boylon
1 year ago
Reply to  Galeti Tavas

Yes. Quit watching TV 20 years ago. I’ve been living debt free, buying rural property, and working in the city. I have a cell phone because of work only. The day they make this shit active I quit my job, throw my phone phone in Commencement Bay, drive out into the country and join the black market economy. F#$k totalitarianism. The one saving grace of the USA is its size. I’ve been sitting in bars, not social distancing, mask free, drinking beers since late Spring. Lol. I live in Washington State. A liberal lock down state but the liberals only control the cities. Just leave the city and you are fine. Nobody is paying attention to this nonsense outside of the cities and they can’t police it.

Last edited 1 year ago by Dennis Boylon
Robin Lambert
Robin Lambert
1 year ago
Reply to  Bertie B

You could be refused transport,NHS treatment access to pubs,libraries,Restaurants,Cinema,Theatre etc..& purchases on Food ! If you’re Not A Bland citizen..

John Stone
John Stone
1 year ago

Unherd should be saying this in a forthright manner – moreover the government are playing games while pretending the are libertarian at heart which they are not. Everyone needs to call their bluff.

Athena Jones
Athena Jones
1 year ago

What I do not understand is how anyone can think forcing people to have any medical treatment for any reason can ever not lead into dangerous realms and a loss of freedom.
Vaccinology has become in essence a cult, where anyone who questions anything about it, is condemned if not destroyed, particularly if they work in science or medicine.
It is illogical to believe that a human being requires regular doses of disease, synthetic chemicals, antibiotics, animal, human and bird material, injected into their body, to trick, confuse, manipulate, train their immune system into making the mistake of reacting to a non-threat, to remain well.
In fact it is insane to believe that subject to such artificial and toxic invasion any human being can remain well and the rising rates of serious and chronic disease, worse in children, tracking the max-vax age of the past forty years or so, would indicate that most cannot.
Surely when we lose our freedom to decide what goes into our body and what medical treatments we choose to have, we are under the rule of tyrants, regardless of how well-intentioned they may believe themselves to be. In fact, all tyranny begins with good intentions and that is what makes it so dangerous, so powerful and so common in human history.

Vasiliki Farmaki
Vasiliki Farmaki
1 year ago

If corona passports cause us such immense troubles, and in fact nobody has ever wished for them, so… why do we allow this discussion to go on? What kind of discussion is this in democracy? Is it not the time to rethink and renew the values of the western culture and refine them? .. Take the steps for more democracy and more freedom? Retrospection is also required because those sinister ideas should not be on the table at the first place.. they do not belong to our culture. And by the way the first one who recommended vaccine passports was the Chinese president, is this not alarming to realize that politicians all over the world, have been puppets for much longer than what we think? They have been playing opposition but if we look carefully there has never been any difference, they follow orders and perhaps it is the time that we find out whose hiding behind? Is it not the time for a good cleaning from everything holds us back? Is it not the time for Our Normal and Our Democracy? 

Dave Smith
Dave Smith
1 year ago

Brand is making increasing sense. We are no longer right or left but split between those who fear that we are losing a free country where we can all contend as to the way we live and those who reject this as a sign of inefficiency and lack or purpose. Johnson is now firmly in the latter camp along with Starmer and most of our MPs.
All they care for is to stay in power. Or have a try at getting it. I am not going to accept this internal passport even if it means hardship and second class status. I will wear the badge of that with pride. . In the end what can Johnson and his lot do? Lock me up? That costs money. Force a vaccine on me? Doubt that if I have had one. Eliminate me? That is very doubtful. But never trust the state. It is the coldest of all cold monsters.
I have not spent this many years in this country to end up like the new normalists want.

David Fellowes
David Fellowes
1 year ago

This is getting bizarre. First of all, “vaccine passports” need no information on them, other than a picture of the holder, and some text to say that the individual that looks like this has been vaccinated. That’s it: no ID. Unlike, for instance, my Driving Licence, which has all my ID information on it, and which I am obliged to carry with me when I’m driving.
I also used it for years when challenged by landlords to get access to pubs. Among others, policemen have also satisfied themselves as to my identity with a quick glance at it. It’s an “Identity Card” in all but name, unlike any vaccine passport that need carry no identifying information on it.
What’s going on here?

Felice Camino
Felice Camino
1 year ago
Reply to  David Fellowes

I think it is a lot more than that. It’s not a straight question of vaccinated or not. I gather that it is supposed to work via the NHS app, and will link to the relevant entry in your medical records.
Do you honestly think that nothing can go wrong???

Galeti Tavas
Galeti Tavas
1 year ago
Reply to  Felice Camino

Good point, ‘Gives IV passport to pub bouncer who scans the QR code to see if you are covered and asks ‘ So I see you use 20 mg Cialis, how is that working, I have been thinking of trying it.’

Fran Martinez
Fran Martinez
1 year ago
Reply to  David Fellowes

Also, there has to be identifying info attached, otherwise ten people could use the same phone. So by design it has to be identifying. Also, why would businesses have the right to discriminate based on private medical info?

Tom Fox
Tom Fox
1 year ago
Reply to  Fran Martinez

Simples…..
They don’t want plague carrying thickos, too stupid to take an elementary precaution putting their customers at risk and threatening another wave of infection with more bankrupting shut downs….

Clear now?

Jane Awdry
Jane Awdry
1 year ago
Reply to  Tom Fox

It’s not the plague & calling people thickos is a bit, well, thick. Bubonic plague, Ebola for example kill almost everyone who contracts them. As did Smallpox. Covid kills less than 1%. Comparing it to ‘plague’ is taking false equivalence to stratospheric levels of hysteria. Get a grip.

Galeti Tavas
Galeti Tavas
1 year ago
Reply to  David Fellowes

Your photo is your ID now days. Facial recognition. You are quibbling about points in your argument. So how about age? Is adding that enough for you to sheep like accept as well? Then full DOB. Then how about your NI number (SSI in USA), your address? Martial state, spouses picture, their NI, pictures of your children, your education? Where does this ID (which it is ID as it has your picture and the vaccine data) get too much? How long is the piece of string till you find it too long?

Jane Awdry
Jane Awdry
1 year ago
Reply to  Galeti Tavas

Maybe if we demand a simple photo card with only vax info on it could be acceptable.
No scanning, just a visual. After all, if that’s all they want to know, that’s all we need show. And if they refuse that it will be obvious that something more sinister is going on.

Dave Smith
Dave Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  David Fellowes

Nobody has to carry a driving licence in the UK. You have to produce it at a police station if requested but not have it on your person .All it has on mine is my address and date of birth . I have never carried it.
In any case there is a real difference. Driving is an optional act. Being refused entrance to a once freely available place unless vaccinated is quite different. In effect it is compelling you to take a vaccine to take part in society.

Jorge Toer
Jorge Toer
1 year ago

George Orwell is in day be day life in British soil,,,camera’s to control our lives,,rules and laws to restrict our freedoms,,this terrible, and,destructive behaviour that people in power incentive to the citizens to go to police if other people are not follow the rules to be (pimps)
Brand is a egomaniac and want to be in the spotlight.
The real problem , this corrupt government use the coronavirus opportunity to cut more our freedom

William Gladstone
William Gladstone
1 year ago

I just left a job not too long ago and one of the “smalltalk” “friendly” exit questions was have you been vaccinated? and I said no and I asked have they been vaccinated and they said yes, you could feel the contempt and judgement. To top it all they asked who my line manager was at the related organisation I was going to so I expect similar.
I just thought what if I had asked “Is your AIDS test up to date?” I can only imagine the outrage. and AIDS is actually pretty dangerous (yeah I know there are treatments but I imagine its not great).
Genuinely people are downright evil with seemingly few boundaries these days. I can only hope karma comes to get them but I doubt it.
Anyway passports I am sure will come in because we live in an ever more authoritarian state.

Glyn Reed
Glyn Reed
1 year ago

Most are just downright thick and do not think for themselves.

jill dowling
jill dowling
1 year ago

“people who can’t afford a vaccine.” Are you serious?

Galeti Tavas
Galeti Tavas
1 year ago
Reply to  jill dowling

The guy is a total idiot, I would put him up there with a Bansky graffiti as a way of deciding issues.

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
1 year ago
Reply to  jill dowling

You talk from a position of where vaccines are freely available and free – obviously. Many more countries in the world…. and many more possibilities.

Last edited 1 year ago by Lesley van Reenen
David Slade
David Slade
1 year ago

Terrific video – the more I hear Russell Brand talk; the more I like him. I hope he does get people listening to this.

Jeffrey Chongsathien
Jeffrey Chongsathien
1 year ago

I discovered his podcast recently. If someone had told me years ago that Russell Brand would transform himself into my political bedfellow, I would ridiculed the notion. I think it was partly due to his sobering up, and also learning about the crimes of the 2008 banking crisis and corrupt bankster bailouts by state counterfeiting of currency. We probably differ on whether mass violence is required to correct the system (it is).

Last edited 1 year ago by Jeffrey Chongsathien
Anna Jacka-Thomas
Anna Jacka-Thomas
1 year ago

Very succinct, he is getting better and better at putting an argument across.What a lot of people are being illogical about is the point that why should anyone be forced to have a vaccine firstly ( this has never happened before) and a vaccine that is , not licensed, not trialled for the length of time that every other vaccine has been through out history ,something that is designed to alter your DNA , is considered an ‘experimental vaccine’ by those who made it and we have know idea what it is going to do long term ?

George Wells
George Wells
1 year ago

I’ve changed my mind on identity cards, and not due to covid. A British identity card can be used to control access to public services, to combat illegal working, illegal immigration, illegal voting and so on.
This is an easy country to live under the radar in, and this has bad consequences.
I wish it wasn’t so.

Mud Hopper
Mud Hopper
1 year ago
Reply to  George Wells

Wouldn’t the fact that you presumably already have a NI number and a NHS number be sufficient reference to access any services in the UK?

Robin Lambert
Robin Lambert
1 year ago
Reply to  George Wells

These cards Will be forged & your ID stolen, all in the Name of Control.. Leaving EU was about leaving an ”unaccountable Undemocratic institution ” now Boris,keir,Ed,Nicola, mark useless All want to impose this Chinese communist Party,Tracker &Arbiter on what you can/cannot purchase if you are A ”Good” or ”Bad” Citizen of Airstrip One?..,

Cheryl Jones
Cheryl Jones
1 year ago

The Great Reset.

Mike Fraser
Mike Fraser
1 year ago

The government, of whatever hue, could already wield huge power over us by employing the data on so called ID cards such as passports, driving licences, photo identifiers in various corporations and institutions.
 So the argument that the government could misuse vaccination passports in this way are lame to say the least and very political.
Vaccine passports mandated internationally have been in use for years (Yellow fever etc) and a very good thing they are too.
But to use a so called covid vaccine passport internally in the country in such places as pubs, concerts, soccer matches etc is an altogether different issue.
If they are introduced necessarily because of the present pandemic conditions and the speed of transmission of this disease which can clearly kill a lot of older people, unless they have been vaccinated, and we do not know how long that immunisation caused by vaccinations will last, then so be it.
 BUT IT MUST BE TEMPORARY and can only change into permanence by a vote in parliament and that vote in parliament must be reviewed on an annual basis . And an amendment to the act that once we live with Covid as we do the Flu, then it should be rescinded .
Once we can live with Covid, as we live with flu where people are vaccinated annually if they want to be, then there should be no need for an internal covid vaccine passport and therefore there MUST NOT be one in the long run

Anna Jacka-Thomas
Anna Jacka-Thomas
1 year ago
Reply to  Mike Fraser

With regard to Yellow fever vaccine, you only have to have a vaccine if you are coming from a country where Yellow fever is endemic. You say must only change into a permanent state of law by a vote in parliament? No vote about anything to do with Covid 19 has taken into consideration to number of votes against it , it has gone ahead anyway and has thus become a president for future laws and no one takes any notice .

H
H
1 year ago
Reply to  Mike Fraser

Can we all assume that you have been , pretty comfortable earnings in the bank at the end of each month and being able to see your family in the last year? Which was ‘only 3 weeks’ to flatten the curve, when this panic started

Drahcir Nevarc
Drahcir Nevarc
1 year ago

I’m terribly sorry, but I am unable to contemplate the existence of Russell far kin Brand without immediately becoming very, very angry.

Pauline Rosslee
Pauline Rosslee
1 year ago
Reply to  Drahcir Nevarc

I can’t bear the man – surprised he is on this site. Arrogant, claims to know it all, remoaner, massive champagne leftie …. even his voice make me want to vomit!

Paul Goodman
Paul Goodman
1 year ago

I have concluded that it is time to sink into the gutter and resort to the mindless mud slinging of the woke progressive left and just call all those who are in support of vaccine passports a herd of dullards.
Before you say it, I agree a pathetic attempt at persuasion but at least it felt good.

Robin Lambert
Robin Lambert
1 year ago

Paul James Watson on youtube,Gives A more coherent view against Chinese credit card ID…..I also oppose these measures in my campaign leaflet in a Ward by election.

Robert Malcolm
Robert Malcolm
1 year ago

My son enjoys all the same stuff you do: live music, festivals, movies, theatre, live sport, pubs: but he happens to have autism, and white-coat syndrome: he will not be jagged unless you are willing to assault and subdue him. Which I am not.
Deny him access to social and public activities, and you also deny all my family access. Its that simple.

Paul Goodman
Paul Goodman
1 year ago

My vehement opposition to vaccine passports is only surpasses by vehement opposition to Russel Brand. He is like trump in that he accidentally says something right every so often and is otherwise utterly odious.

Bertie B
Bertie B
1 year ago

While I’m generally going to be on the side of anyone questioning whether vaccine passports are a good idea (they really really arn’t), I never quite seem to be able to agree with Brand whole heartily on anything.
He starts off by saying (as quoted in the article)

“Is it right that big tech companies, and the state, are given the power to determine whether or not you can enjoy every day freedoms?”

.. and that just colours anything else he might say. “Every day freedoms” are derived from the state – they aren’t inate – deciding what can and can’t be done, by whom, in what circumstances is a fairly major chunk of what the state does. It says, for example, that the stuff in my house is mine and you’re not allowed to take it.
So is it right “that the state is given the power to determine whether or not you can enjoy freedom” – Yes.

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
1 year ago
Reply to  Bertie B

So is it right “that the state is given the power to determine whether or not you can enjoy freedom” – Yes.
Perhaps your definition of freedom is different from mine. Govt does not bestow rights; that’s not how rights work. If one must ask permission in order to exercise a right, then it’s no longer a right. It is a privilege to be granted or not on the whims of the day. And who is “giving” the state power to determine what we can or cannot enjoy? Govt people are in the habit of taking power, the consent of the governed be damned.
The state does not determine that’s what yours is yours; common sense and natural law do that. The state simply codifies this reality and prescribes a form of punishment for the offense. Brand is not the issue here; he’s just one voice among many who are saying much the same thing.

Mike Fraser
Mike Fraser
1 year ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

Brand’s voice may be one amongst many, but there is no proper evidence that that many is a majority.

Last Jacobin
Last Jacobin
1 year ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

So, where do rights come from? Rights are just another way of saying laws. Laws grant you the ability to do stuff and prevent or grant others the ability to do stuff to you. Unless you think rights are not a human concept but delivered from above.
‘Common sense’ and ‘natural law’. That means the dominant discourse of the day – they are another way of saying ‘what the people in power think (or find useful)’.
It’s common sense that the more people have access to guns the less shooting there will be. Common Sense and a Right.

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
1 year ago
Reply to  Last Jacobin

 Rights are just another way of saying laws.
I have to disagree. If you have to ask govt’s permission, then it is not a right, it is a privilege. This turns govt into a parent. The Constitution was written to prevent that. It grants govt explicit powers and chief among them is protecting the rights of the individual.
Laws provide a state or society with a means of redress. I have a right to own a firearm. I do not have the right to indiscriminately shoot at people.

Last Jacobin
Last Jacobin
1 year ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

I think this might be a misunderstanding due to language. As I understand it it the constitution sets out some rules (rights, laws) that are subject to amendment (change) by government which then are enforced by the state. If you have to ask permission from the government for something you didn’t used to have to ask permission for it’s because the government changed the rules, laws or rights (constitution).

Arnold Grutt
Arnold Grutt
1 year ago
Reply to  Last Jacobin

“Rights are just another way of saying laws.”

Nope. The British legal system formerly, and correctly, told you what you could not do. It did not try to tell you what you had a right to do. It had literally no interest or business telling you. Real laws involve solely prohibitions. All allocation of rights is basically other, extra-legal people telling you what you have to do, to please them or other people. The question then arises, why do they get to decide rather than me?
Even the British Government is answerable to the law for its actions (e.g. ‘ultra vires’).

Last edited 1 year ago by Arnold Grutt
Ian Wigg
Ian Wigg
1 year ago
Reply to  Arnold Grutt

Under British law everyone, unless part of a proscribed group (based on age, criminal record, mental health history) is entitled to hold a shotgun licence. It is a right. You may not agree with that right but that doesn’t alter the fact.
The police seem to take it upon themselves to unilaterally subvert that right to a privilege by insisting that you show good cause for having one.
Not actually owning one but having the documented proof that you are entitled to purchase one if you wish and a record of your ownership if you do so.

younbe75
younbe75
1 year ago
Reply to  Bertie B

It’s a continental European idea that freedom is derived from the state. The British idea is that the individual is free unless the state (which derives its authority from the consent of the governed) expressly forbids an activity.

Hal Lives
Hal Lives
1 year ago
Reply to  younbe75

Indeed; “What is not forbidden is permissible.”

Last Jacobin
Last Jacobin
1 year ago
Reply to  younbe75

Yes. But over centuries the state has forbidden plenty of activities without seeking the consent of the governed.

Rex Clayton
Rex Clayton
1 year ago
Reply to  Last Jacobin

Let’s have some examples please.

Ian Wigg
Ian Wigg
1 year ago
Reply to  Rex Clayton

Income tax?

Robin Lambert
Robin Lambert
1 year ago
Reply to  Ian Wigg

Yes imposed around 1812 to pay for Napoleonic Wars ,they’ve finished,Can we have a refund..

Mike Boosh
Mike Boosh
1 year ago
Reply to  Bertie B

I completely disagree with this. The state does not decide that “I own my own stuff” – if that were the case it could just as easily decide one day that I don’t own the stuff in my house and decide to take it away…

Kathryn Richards
Kathryn Richards
1 year ago
Reply to  Mike Boosh

But, if Jeremy had been elected 2 years ago, that is exactly what was proposed in the Labour manifesto. Particularly with regard to property.

Mike Boosh
Mike Boosh
1 year ago

Well, quite. There are systems where the state decides whether you can enjoy freedoms, but thats not a system we should have here, and certainly not one that I want to live under.

Last Jacobin
Last Jacobin
1 year ago
Reply to  Mike Boosh

The State does decide whether or not you own your ‘own stuff’. Married women’s property rights, for example, are relatively recent in UK – seen as a right now but 150 years ago, not so.
We have laws that determine rights and these laws change and they change via governments and the State is an agent of government.

Colin Haller
Colin Haller
1 year ago
Reply to  Mike Boosh

Well, yeah — hence expropriation and such processes. So it’s yours until the state says it isn’t, since the state makes and administers the laws.

Ian Wigg
Ian Wigg
1 year ago
Reply to  Mike Boosh

Try not paying your taxes, you’ll soon find they quite quickly will (and your house too.)

Dave Smith
Dave Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  Bertie B

I completely reject your definition of the word freedom. I do not derive my freedom from the state. That is the difference from the word liberty. That is from the Latin and speaks of a state which grants this. Freedom is from our Anglo Saxon past and is something different. Nobody makes me free. I am born free and that is an end to it. The thing about Common Law as I understand it is that it is over and above the state and it’s minions. Over kings and governors and all are subject to it. The Common Law guarantees my freedom not the state. And at it’s heart Common Law comes from the experience of societies down the ages in how they live together in harmony. Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal . Thou shalt not bear false witness. No state mandates this. There is another hand at work .

Rex Clayton
Rex Clayton
1 year ago
Reply to  Bertie B

I have to disagree. The principle in this country has always been that anyone has the right to do whatever they wish, unless it is prohibited by law. Vaccine passports take away freedoms which are, by their very nature, innate and should be inalienable.
Your comparison with theft of your property is at best disingenuous.

Ian Wigg
Ian Wigg
1 year ago
Reply to  Rex Clayton

Surely though your argument falls down simply because, all the government has to do is restrict certain freedoms for certain non vacinated people by an act of parliament (in law) and that fits perfectly in the UK concept of freedoms.

Tom Fox
Tom Fox
1 year ago

Until the Internet #2 came along, I had no idea there were so many contrarian fools about. Then any loon was given license to spout blithering nonsense and spread their idiocy far and wide.

Dougie Undersub
Dougie Undersub
1 year ago

I’m baffled as to why everyone is getting so worked up about vaccine passports. It’s not going to happen. Relax.

Arnold Grutt
Arnold Grutt
1 year ago

The unthinkable, when thought about, becomes thinkable.

Robin Lambert
Robin Lambert
1 year ago

So why has the Government got two ID Companies making iD Q Cards?…see Paul James watson on Youtube ”ID Cards”

Tom Fox
Tom Fox
1 year ago

What a lot of dancing on the head of a pin.
Just get the vaccine.

AZ vaccine chance of getting a clot 1:250,000
Chance of having an aircraft fall on your house 1:250,000
Chance of a UK resident dying of covid since the pandemic began 1:550 *
I can’t say I have ever worried for a moment about a plane falling on my house.

*66million / 127,000 covid dead.

Last edited 1 year ago by Tom Fox
Richard E
Richard E
1 year ago
Reply to  Tom Fox

That’s the proof of the imbecilic hysteria right there. 1 in 550 chance of dying from covid 19 – if you accept all deaths within 28 days of a positive test are attributable 100% to covid and in the same year flu disappeared.
But for someone who does not have pre existing conditions, they only make up 5% of deaths, so the 550 x 20 = 1 in 11,000 chance for those without pre-existing conditions.
But of course, the average age of death is 82, so if your say 50 without pre existing conditions, maybe it’s more like 1 in 40,000.
For someone under 30, there’s practically zero risk.
So why force the vaccine on people. Let the vulnerable and bedwetters take it, and if it works, they shouldn’t care if anyone else takes it – as they’re then safe.

Last edited 1 year ago by Richard E
Robin Lambert
Robin Lambert
1 year ago
Reply to  Tom Fox

Wrong again.!70 million in Uk 58m England 5m Scotland 3.5m NIreland 3.5M Wales ,,,, SARS”2 deaths are nearer 1.5-5% of 127,000 which is 6,700 .Unless You’ve seen 127,000 Autopsies?

mohsinallarakhia
mohsinallarakhia
1 year ago

Seriously? I spent seven days in a hospital after getting Covid, and it took me almost two months to recover fully. Restrictions on movement, etc. are a fact of life. These restrictions are needed to control an epidemic. This is not about restricting people who refuse to get vaccinated, but about removing restrictions on people who agree to get vaccinated…there is a big difference between the two. If people.choose not to get vaccinated, then that is their right. But we will now have a pool of people who could get infected, increasing the risk of a mutated version that could create a second wave of infections. Why should the rest of us be exposed to such people? Stay in your home, and spare me the tears about how your freedoms have been curtailed.

Tim Gardener
Tim Gardener
1 year ago

Your experience, distressing though it may be, seems to have produced in you in a twisted logic that assumes the untenable and justifies the unjustifiable.

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
1 year ago

This is not about restricting people who refuse to get vaccinated, but about removing restrictions on people who agree to get vaccinated…there is a big difference between the two.
No, that’s called a distinction, not a difference. The net result is the same. How long have you favored authoritarian ideas? And what to do with the refuseniks – tattoos or symbols on their clothing?

Arnold Grutt
Arnold Grutt
1 year ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

Like compulsory ‘rainbow badges’? (web search ‘National Trust rainbow badges’).

Last edited 1 year ago by Arnold Grutt
Barry Coombes
Barry Coombes
1 year ago

If you have been vaccinated, what do you have to worry about? Unless the vaccines don’t work, of course, in which case, why coerce people into having them?

Rex Clayton
Rex Clayton
1 year ago
Reply to  Barry Coombes

Or require them to carry a “passport” to prove that you have been vaccinated?

Vasiliki Farmaki
Vasiliki Farmaki
1 year ago

You need to update your information.. The vaccinated become Hosts for new mutations.. and therefore spread the new variants, it has happened in every place as in the UK with many got the vaccine.. That is why they want them to travel abroad, to spread the mutations whereas the strong, healthy and young will not be allowed.. and why?.. because vaccines have nothing to do with any virus.. in this instance it is for 5G and not just cancelling freedom of movement but to control the physical, private, personal bodies.. Please do your research for the Internet of Bodies.. they mean.. We are the virus.. it is us they want to control.. wake up!

David Slade
David Slade
1 year ago

Are you really happy with the prospect of a two caste society where people who are un-vaccinated will be denied access to goods and services? What level of denial would you be comfortable with – not only concerts and theatres but supermarkets and food outlets? Are the un-vaccinated to starve to keep you safe? Are you (if not remotely concerned about these things) absolutely sure that once the infrastructure for separating humanity out in this way has been established, it wont one day be utilised in a way which is to the detriment of yourself?
I also think you are buying in to a dubious claim about pools of un vaccinated being breeding grounds for potential new variants – wouldn’t pools of vaccinated people instead be ideal selection pressures favouring the emergence of vaccine evasive mutations? I don’t know (lest I be accused of speaking outside of my area of expertise); but it is a hypothesis which is at least as consistent with evolutionary theory as the alternative (additionally, its note worthy that no one has ever blamed the un vaccinated for new flu strains before)

Vasiliki Farmaki
Vasiliki Farmaki
1 year ago
Reply to  David Slade

..

Last edited 1 year ago by Vasiliki Farmaki
Wulvis Perveravsson
Wulvis Perveravsson
1 year ago

“Why should the rest of us be exposed to such people?”

Wow. You really need to think about your attitude.

Last edited 1 year ago by Wulvis Perveravsson
alex6
alex6
1 year ago

Apart from the fact that even with the vaccination you can still get the virus and pass it on. The only thing we know for sure is that the vaccine will likely reduce the impact of the virus on the individual. To this effect, there is no compelling argument for a passport.

Niobe Hunter
Niobe Hunter
1 year ago

I am medically advised not to have the vaccine.Under your system, I suppose I will just be locked out of society forever, so that you won’t be ‘exposed’ to me.
whose rights are the more important, you with your fear of catching another disease, or me who has to rely on herd immunity ( whilst observing all sensible precautions)?

Drahcir Nevarc
Drahcir Nevarc
1 year ago
Reply to  Niobe Hunter

If you are medically advised not to have the vaccine, you should be on the same side of the debate as mosinallarakhia, in wanting everyone who can get vaccinated to do so. It is for the sake of people like you that we need to develop herd immunity.

Rex Clayton
Rex Clayton
1 year ago
Reply to  Drahcir Nevarc

That does not however justify having to carry a digital vaccine passport, nor indeed a paper one.