Tag Archives: passport

Vaccine passports scrapped – but what does that say about Voter ID?

The ballot box: Boris Johnson doesn’t want you to be able to put anything into it until you can show valid photo ID, like a Tory Party membership card.

Let’s remind ourselves of something Boris Johnson said, way back in pre-history:

Brilliant! And half-true…

The plan for Covid-19 vaccination passports has just been scrapped by Sajid  Javid.

Clearly he has been reading This Site’s discussion of the rights and wrongs of forcing people to vaccinate. Denying them entry to places unless they have been forced to vaccinate is still forcing people to vaccinate, of course.

(Amazingly, one of the guys who was so determined to force his will on other people – even though it wouldn’t make any difference to whether they passed the virus on to him – is still demanding it. His latest effort was to say that people should be force-vaccinated for the same reason we aren’t allowed to smoke in offices – to prevent passive smoking. But passive smoking is forced on non-smokers by smokers and the prohibition is to stop smokers putting something in non-smokers’ bodies that they don’t want there – which is exactly what this guy is trying to do by forcing injections on people who don’t want them. Some might say that’s practically rape.)

However Johnson is still forcing voter ID on us.

It makes a nonsense of Javid’s claim that “I’ve never liked the idea of saying to people you must show your papers or something to do what is just an everyday activity.” Voting might not be everyday but is still regular.

The Welsh Assembly has already recommended that consent for the Elections Bill – which demands that voters produce a recognised form of photo ID or be turned away – should be refused.

It would make sweeping changes to the UK’s electoral system with very little justification – the “voter ID” demand is being made in spite of the fact that voter impersonation is very nearly nonexistent in the UK.

So convention requires the Assembly to give consent – and it is being withheld. The Welsh Government is seeking amendments that will reduce the impact on Welsh law.

That should keep the Bill tied up for a while.

And just as well, to judge from the reactions:

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Unforgivable: anti-lockdown protesters compare masks and vaccines with the Holocaust

I was going to avoid reporting on anti-lockdown protests, because in a time when wearing a mask and having a vaccination injection could save many thousands of lives, I would have hoped anyone with sense could see that these people are wrong.

But some of the protesters who were out in London today (and elsewhere, I dare say) took the opportunity to take their silliness across the line into the unforgivable. I refer to this:

It is bad enough that people like this … lady … have chosen to mock the memories of more than 150,000 victims of the Covid-19 virus by announcing their ignorance of its threat all over our streets.

But then they had to pretend that measures designed to safeguard their lives are somehow similar to the systematic persecution and extermination of Jews by Nazi Germany.

It isn’t very often that I agree with David Baddiel on matters concerning anti-Semitism but this was an offence, not only against the 150,000 who have died over the last year or so but also against the six million Jews who were murdered in the Nazi Holocaust.

In that context, I think his tweeted “Take. That. Off.” was remarkably restrained.

Others who took to the social media to express their outrage were more explanatory. I won’t publish the actual tweets because they feature the full image, including the woman’s face, and I don’t want to give her the publicity.

The Auschwitz Memorial Twitter account stated, “Instrumentalization of the tragedy of Jews who suffered, were humiliated, marked with a yellow star, and finally isolated in ghettos and murdered during the Holocaust, in order to argue against vaccination that saves human lives is a sad symptom of moral and intellectual decline.” This was also remarkably restrained, in my opinion.

Heather Rufus tweeted: “To anyone wearing the Star of David as a lockdown protest, you’re totally lacking in awareness. Millions of Jewish people were murdered during the Holocaust and you are likening lockdown to that. You should hang your head in shame. Gross.”

Ian Moore went further: “If you wore a Yellow Star today to protest against facemasks that protect others, you are a stain on humanity. You ignorant, privileged morons. Whatever your perceived grievances are, how is that Holocaust level? Vile.”

Benjamin Cohen, CEO of Pink News added: “If you really want to be a crank and protest about the Covid lockdowns that have saved lives, do not then appropriate a symbol from the Holocaust that led to the murder of six million Jews and permanently diminished Jewish population, destroyed Jewish culture and history.”

There’s this, from @HowardA_Esq: “Being asked to wear a mask or be vaccinated is not like having your family burned alive, gassed to death, starved to death or worked to death because of their religion. This is the symbol of our religion and our persecution. Take it off, bigot.

“My family were murdered by people who force them to wear the Star of David. Playing holocaust victim because you were asked to wear a mask, it’s reprehensible on every level.”

Damn straight.

Source: London protest: Thousands gather for anti-lockdown march after pubs and shops reopen – Mirror Online

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New blue Brexit passports are made in Poland by a French-Dutch firm. Satire is dead

The old-style British passport. The new version is to be made entirely in the European Union by an EU-based company.

What else is there to say?

The iconic blue passport has become a symbol of the UK’s departure from the European Union for many people.

I wonder if these Brexiteers will be proud to brandish their new UK passports, in the knowledge that they have been manufactured entirely in the EU?

That’s Tory privatisation for you! They sold off our national resources, so foreign firms bought them – and will keep them, no matter whether we’re in the EU or not.

Source: Blue Brexit passports, made in Poland, unveiled by UK government – CNN

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The ‘grubby little idea’ that will tarnish Theresa May

Theresa May. At present, all under-16s have the right to a school place, even if their parents entered the country illegally [Image: Stefan Rousseau/PA].

Theresa May. At present, all under-16s have the right to a school place, even if their parents entered the country illegally [Image: Stefan Rousseau/PA].

We can all agree that illegal immigrants should be rooted out, wherever they have hidden themselves, before being made to face justice and punished accordingly.

But Theresa May’s idea had nothing to do with any of that.

She wanted to punish children for the sins of their parents.

Perhaps she allowed herself to be guided by her religion in this, as she says she is over Brexit. But “visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation” is an Old Testament punishment (Exodus 34:7) and This Writer thought she said she was a Christian.

Either way, her plan to push the children of illegal immigrants to the back of the queue for school places is unacceptable according to the law of this land: Children aged under 16 have a right to an education, regardless of their parents’ actions.

And the plan to turn teachers into border guards, demanding to see pupils’ passports, is beyond the pale.

Teachers are already overworked. They don’t have time for an extra burden, passed onto them because Mrs May simply wasn’t capable of doing her job and protecting our borders when she was Home Secretary.

In addition, This Writer did not have a passport until long after leaving school. In fact I was in my early 20s when I left the UK for the first time, and I don’t think I’m alone in that. What was planned for people like me? It is a hare-brained idea.

Even the language used is worrying. Apparently Mrs May wanted every Whitehall department to be involved in mitigating her failure to reduce immigration – both legal and illegal.

Or, as the BBC suggests it was put, they were all to have their hands “dipped in blood”.

That doesn’t seem very Christian of Mrs May.

“Satanic” would be a better word.

Claims that Theresa May wanted to put the children of illegal migrants to the back of the queue for school places show the “nasty party never really went away”, Angela Rayner has said today.

Rayner spoke out after the BBC published part of a leaked memo which suggested the Home Office wanted schools to withdraw offers of school places for children whose parents had been found living in Britain illegally.

The shadow education secretary joined a chorus of teachers and education leaders who criticised the measure as draconian. Local authorities have an obligation to provide education to children regardless of the status of their parents.

May was “trying to offload the failings of her department”, which failed to meet a net migration target, Rayner told the BBC.

She said May, the former home secretary, sought to blame “innocent children” and “bring our teachers into border control”, a measure Rayner describes as “impractical”. Rayner described the now prime minister’s actions as running contrary to British values.

By law, children under the age of 16 have a right to an education, regardless of their parent’s circumstances.

Source: Rayner: May’s plan to put children of illegal immigrants at bottom of school places list shows nasty party is back | LabourList

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Health dept’s most senior official is WRONG – passport checks are not needed before hospital treatment

Chris Wormald said the ‘controversial’ proposal was not part of health service culture but that visitors from abroad did not have an automatic right to free care [Image: Andrew Milligan/PA].

Chris Wormald said the ‘controversial’ proposal was not part of health service culture but that visitors from abroad did not have an automatic right to free care [Image: Andrew Milligan/PA].


It seems the Department of Health is joining in the wave of immigrant-bashing sweeping the UK – and the western world – at the moment.

So let’s make something perfectly clear:

THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION FOR ANY UK RESIDENT TO HAVE TO BRING THEIR PASSPORTS TO HOSPITAL BEFORE TREATMENT, NO MATTER WHETHER THEY ARE UK CITIZENS OR NOT.

Got that?

The only way anybody qualifies for service at an NHS hospital is if they have been referred by their GP – and that means they must be registered with that GP as an NHS patient.

Everybody living in the UK has the right to register with an NHS GP if they live within that doctor’s catchment area, even if they come from a foreign country.

Entitlement to free NHS treatment depends on the length and purpose of a foreign national’s residence in the UK, not their nationality.

Hospital treatment is free to people who are ordinarily resident in the UK – but then, these are people who would have registered with a GP, whose details will be on file and who would not, therefore, need to show a passport when seeking treatment.

In England, a visitor from the EEA will need to present a valid EHIC or other healthcare documents (such as S2 or S1 forms) or they may be charged for care. A visitor from a non-EEA country would need to ensure they are covered for healthcare through personal medical insurance for the duration of their visit, even if they are a former UK resident.

And many services in NHS hospitals are exempt from charges, meaning they are free to everybody – including Accident and Emergency.

So there is no reason for anyone to have to bring a passport with them to hospital. Either they are on the register, or they will have insurance, or they’ll need to pay – but only if the service requires it.

I can’t, at the moment, see any reason for hospitals to demand passports from people seeking treatment.

I cannot understand why the Department of Health’s permanent secretary, Chris Wormald, is trying to suggest this as a requirement…

… Unless he is simply trying to persecute foreigners – and that is not in his job description.

Source: Hospitals may require patients to show passports for NHS treatment | Society | The Guardian

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