Vaccine passport opponents have a right...to be wrong

IT is vital in a democracy to have vibrant debate.

- Stephen Pollard

That’s the point of democracy, however frustrating it can sometimes seem. If people get a bee in their bonnet about something, no matter how odd or weak their case may seem, they have every right to disagree and to campaign against it. The price we rightly pay for our freedom to disagree is that, sometimes, we end up having rows that are not so much frustrating as entirely pointless.

It’s difficult to think of a clearer example of this than the debate over so-called “vaccine passports”, which the Prime Minister confirmed yesterday are being actively looked at, and will probably work with the existing NHS app. By then, those of us who don’t have smartphones will also be covered, by the presentation of a Covid status certificate, possibly with a QR code on it, along with proof of ID, like a driving licence. It is rare in politics for there to be a proposal and for every argument against to be baseless, but this is one of them.