While, like Australia and New Zealand, the United Kingdom seems to have taken anti-COVID measures to extreme levels, a recent comment from Dominic Raab, the U.K. Foreign Secretary should cause us all to ponder the future that may exist should governments continue down the road to complete totalitarianism.
Let's start by looking at some background information. In mid-January 2021, HealthcareITNews reported the following:
According to the article, the U.K. was entering the initial live testing stage for the nations newly-developed COVID-19 immunity and vaccination passport. The passport is being developed by iProve, a facial biometric authentication company and Mvine, a deep technology solutions provider. The passport will enable a user's COVID-19 test results and vaccination status to be registered, privately of course. Innovate UK, the government funder has spent £74,270 on the project as shown here:
Note that the funding period for this project began on June 20, 2020 suggesting that the Johnson government has long had plans for a COVID-19 digital passport as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here is the announcement of the trial phase for the COVID-19 passport from Mvine:
The system will not capture or store identity data, rather, it will use an "abstract model of the user's face" that "uses AI to work out a set of numbers which represent them and which cannot be mistaken for anyone else". This will then be linked to the reference number on their vaccine or test results. Phase 2 trials are scheduled to be completed by the end of March 2021 so that the passport can be rolled out quickly as the number of vaccinated British citizens rises.
Let's look at the rationale behind the COVID-19 passport. The passport is designed to "prove" a person's COVID-19 status, allowing the "...easing of restrictions on people meeting by reducing the risk of contagion, enabling families and friends to meet, employees to return to work in-person and businesses to open sooner and more responsibly.". That certainly has the appearance of a government-supplied "carrot", doesn't it? Another word might be "coercion".
Let's close this section of the posting with this from The Guardian on February 7, 2021:
Now, with all of this in mind, let's look at a recent interview with Dominic Raab, the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary. The interview was held on February 14, 2021 on LBC (Leading Britain's Conversation) with Tom Swarbrick (key comments found at the 43 minute 48 second mark):
Swarbrick - "Just back on the vaccine passports. Clearly this is something that 's going to have to be agreed internationally which the government is now making signs that it's looking at. What's though to stop a company in this country demanding that in order to enter a restaurant or in order to go into a pub in the future that someone predicted a document saying that they've go at vaccine?"
Raab - "Well, in terms of the law that would apply that's something that's the prerogative of the government and parliament but what we want to do is make sure that there's enough confidence in the national roll-out that when we're in a position to open non-essential retail and in due course after that hospitality. People can do son confidently the modalities and the mechanisms we of course all that need to be worked out and the Prime Minister I said will give a clear sense of the direction of travel so domestically it won't be needed."
Swarbrick - "You don't think a domestic vaccine passport where you have to show a bit of paper to go into a supermarket or something like that?"
Raab - "Well, it's something that hasn't been ruled out . It's under consideration but, of course, you've got to make it workable. Whether it's at an international, domestic or local level, you've got to know that the document being presented is something that you can rely on and that it's an accurate reflection of the status of the individual."
So, there you have it. One of the world's most advanced economies is considering implementing a vaccine/COVID-19 passport system that will be a requirement for everyday life, despite its protestations (and/or lies) to the contrary. Given that governments are rarely composed of original thinkers, those of us living in the so-called advanced nations can pretty much assure ourselves that, once the United Kingdom imposes this new reality on its citizens, the rest of our so-called elected leaders are sure to follow like a herd of sheep.
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Madness! Complete and utter madness I read somewhere COVID - Certificate of Vaccination ID starts making you think doesn't it?!
ReplyDeleteThe UK has made several attempts to introduce a 'National ID Card' which will have the bearer's biometrics stored on it and would be a sort of 'swipe pass' for all kinds of things - make your life so much easier, you know. And safe. It's all about safety and security, we can never get enough security, and the government is always scaring us with threats to our security, so we won't forget how important it is.
ReplyDeleteIt has always - so far - been roundly repudiated by the public which clearly does not want it.
But this is, at bottom, the same thing. They could take away your passport, and that would mean you could not travel internationally. But for many people, that would be more irritant than catastrophe. And what government is looking for is a document that gives it complete control over your movements and actions in your own country. You would have to swipe your pass for virtually everything. It'd be government-issued, and consequently government property. Play along like a good lad, and no problems; you can convince yourself you have just as much freedom as you ever had, just like the smartphone addicts never notice - or care - about the wealth of data they provide every day to marketers and minders on their movements and activities.
However, act like you have a mind of your own which does not necessarily follow the government's way of thinking, and your card can be deactivated. Stay home, because you really can't do anything else.
I know it's hard to believe - it's still hard for me to believe - but governments throughout what used to be called the 'free world' really are all on the same wavelength, perhaps the Klaus Schwabbe wavelength and perhaps something else, and really are poised to make a concerted grab at rescinding the freedom of their populations forever, and bringing in a new and unprecedented level of government control and regulation. There is no other reasonable explanation for the absurd fuss over COVID and the obvious determination to panic people into giving up everything governments once touted as the whole reason western citizens willingly served the state, in exchange for government promises to protect them from a disease they could easily beat without doing anything or giving up anything.