London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 01, 2025

Vaccine passports were always inevitable, so why aren’t they here?

Vaccine passports were always inevitable, so why aren’t they here?

Vaccination passports for young people in London’s crowded indoors must make sense. They may cast a black cloud over freedom from lockdown. But the reason is glaringly obvious.
However lower in mortality, the Delta variant of Covid-19 is patently not under control and is spreading fastest through young people under 24. A prime target for control must be “super-spreader” venues such as nightclubs and perhaps indoor pubs.

The Evening Standard has been predicting a need for vaccine passports since February, and it has been right. What are the authorities supposed to do? The “pingdemic” now threatening London’s supply chains and public services with empty shelves and fewer trains appears unsustainable. It has proved too blunt and disruptive an instrument. Workers in the open air cannot be high-risk spreaders. But if there is one thing the metropolis does not want it is a return to full lockdown. For the time being — and strictly for the time being — restrictions on indoor crowds, possibly like masks on public transport, are reasonable.

I can understand that if I own a London nightclub, I would want to wring Boris Johnson’s neck. I have watched the blood drain from my business for 17 months. I have planned my reopening amid endless bombast about “world-beating” test-and-trace and “freedom days”. Then on the day it actually arrives, I am told it is not real.

The dread machines, the ropes, queues and inspectors will return, along with the arguments, the fights, the disappointments and the slashed revenues. “An absolute shambles” was the reaction of the Night Time Industries Association’s Michael Kill. “So freedom day for nightclubs lasted around 17 hours.” None of this was forewarned. The conduct and language of lockdown has been that of a Whitehall detached from people’s lives and livelihoods outside its secure little bubble. Why, if things are so critical, is the new control being delayed until after summer?

One thing we have learned from our “Daily Cummings” is that Johnson personally has long been on the side of freedom. His belief that Covid was most lethal only to old people was initially correct, as was his scepticism towards many of the trivial features of his lockdown. But for some time it has been clear that the third wave, which no one predicted, is continuing to rise. It is doing so at an alarming rate, even if hospitalisation and death rates are far behind waves one and two. This is a nightmare pandemic for policymakers.

Opposition to ID cards, certificates, domestic “passports” is deep-seated in Britain. It evokes images of the Third Man film, enemy aliens, refugees and lives dependent on scraps of paper. We should not have to identify ourselves to authority to go about our daily lives. This reluctance has been vastly increased by the advance in modern corporate and state surveillance. Last year’s hair-raising documentary, The Social Dilemma, on the intrusiveness of social media should be compulsory viewing in all schools. The phone in your pocket is toxic to privacy. It is a new enslavement.

Any promise from government, Google or Facebook that its data is “secure” is dangerous rubbish. Nothing electronic is secure, not Johnson’s every remark to an aide, or Matt Hancock’s wandering hand or even Emmanuel Macron’s personal phone. The concept of the individual faces a menace from which we have as yet established no immunity.

But we have to handle the present. Vaccination so far appears to be the only answer to Covid. Nothing else seems to work. Crowded venues must be made as safe as possible. It may be reckless to wait until September, but young people are being given time to get their jabs, and managements to prepare for them. A ticket of entry should mean no more than a flashed NHS app at the door. Such controls must only be for the duration of the pandemic. But I have come across no better idea.

There is nothing new in passes. Old people have bus passes. Drivers have licences. Tourists to some countries used to need health certificates. A “Londoner” pass was once proposed to give citizens free or reduced admission to London museums and arts venues. That is for another day.

Now is clearly an emergency from which all London is craving to escape. Vaccination is, for the moment, the only evident means of such escape. Vaccination there must be.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×