We’ve heard it all before. This is a gentle reminder that in 2021, the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson along with his government and opposition cheerleaders attempted to roll out ‘vaccine passports’ and mandatory vaccinations to deal with Covid. However, they soon realised this wasn’t a popular policy with NHS staff and the wider public, and after fierce pushback both policies were effectively dropped in early 2022 – but not before losing 40,000 care workers, an exodus which has had enormous consequences for Britain.
On July 19th 2021, Johnson declared it was so-called ‘Freedom Day’ – the date when most COVID-19 legal restrictions in England were to be lifted. It was presented as a moment of national liberation, promising a return to normal life after 16 months of lockdowns and government control. Yet, in a move that many saw as contradictory, Johnson used the same announcement to signal the introduction of vaccine passports for nightclubs and large venues from September that year.
Rather than restoring civil liberties, ‘Freedom Day’ marked the start of a new phase of digital surveillance and medical segregation, where people were to be required to show private health information to access everyday parts of public life. For many, this heralded a shift towards a ‘papers please’ society — one in which freedom became conditional on compliance with government mandates. The irony was not lost on those who had hoped for a genuine return to pre-pandemic freedoms....<<<Read More>>>...