For the first time, in my memory at least, a government with a massive majority of eighty seats (minus two vacant pending by-elections) has faced a rebellion of its own MP’s that adds up almost to the governing parties entire majority. If what is being reported on the Guido Fawkes site is true and that 78 Tory MP’s are going to rebel against the vaccine passport programme then this is truly a historic moment. We don’t know at this time whether this rebellion will end up being less than it is claimed to be with maybe an end result of only fifty or so rebels with some potential rebels being strong-armed by the government into voting with them. We also don’t know whether, as Guido suggests, that the rebellion could be greater with Parliamentary Private Secretaries resigning their posts to stand with the rebels.
If the rebellion is even close to what Guido is suggesting it could be and the government can only push through its vaccine passport plans with the help of a Labour Party that the electorate rejected in December 2019, then it is not a good look for the government. It reminds me of the days of the Lib/Lab pact of the late 1970’s where a Labour minority government had to be propped up by the Liberal Party the forerunners of today’s Liberal Democrats. It makes the current government look like a lame duck one but reflects the concerns of MP’s who realise that the vaccine passport plan is an oppression too far when it comes to dealing with the issue of Covid. The rebels, some of whom are defending very small majorities must be realising that to blindly and unthinkingly vote with the government will leave them in bad standing with their electorates who have been punished enough by the government’s response to Covid.
Apart from the Lib/Lab Pact of the 70’s I can’t recall a time when a government with a majority had to rely on a party that the people rejected in order to get such a major measure through the House. A lot of this problem with the potential rebellion is of Boris Johnson’s own making. Unlike Tory Premiers like Thatcher and Major he does not have a personal or political following in the House apart from some Brexit inclined MP’s. Thatcher had the ‘No Turning Back’ group of freedom and liberty minded MP’s to back her up and Major had his Europhile contingent to guarantee him a solid level of support. Boris Johnson does not have these advantages. He also has, for him, the disadvantage that a lot of the 2019 MP intake, especially those from the former Red Wall seats appear to be stubbornly independently minded.
Boris Johnson did the nation a great service when he led a government that honoured the peoples wish to leave the shackles of the European Union. However he’s facing a week, at least, of political pain over the issue of vaccine passports and the prospect of his party either losing the Shropshire North by-election or holding it with a miniscule majority.
I believe that today we may be seeing some ‘interesting times’ in the House of Commons. What will emerge at the end of the day remains to be seen.
Since these vaccines only protect the person who has been jabbed there is no justification for vaccine passports or any other kind of coercion.
I had to download a QR code to my phone in order to attend a music concert in November. An email sent out a few days prior to the event stated that these, or recent proof of a negative test, would be required of anyone attending the event. It was also stated that masks would be required. Despite having already paid for tickets I seriously considered not going, I was thinking that it was just going to be a miserable experience. On the day none of this stuff was enforced. Thinking about it, telling people that it would be was just as effective, in reality not very.
I’m pro-vaccine in almost every way probably because I’m old enough to have seen some vaccine preventable horrors but you are correct vaccine passports are a form of coercion and are pointless as the vaccines are less capable of sterilising immunity than they are protecting the individual who is vaccinated. I would not be at all surprised, based on stuff that I’ve been reading from Dominic Cummings that the whole vaccine coercion thing is linked to the government’s failure to invest heavily enough in anti virals. I tend to believe Mr C when he says that if there had been extra investment into anti virals as well as vaccines then we might not be in such an awful position.