There are some things that require cross party support, that bring with them a moral requirement for both of the main parties in Parliament to to show their support. Chief among these would be a declaration of war against another nation. Second would be some form of genuine national emergency such as a natural or man-made disaster of epic proportions for example a once in a quarter millennium weather event such as the River Thames freezing over or a series of massive mass casualty terror incidents with a body count in the hundreds or even thousands. Last night’s vote to impose vaccine passports on nightclubs and other venues and to mandate covid vaccinations for NHS and care home staff are not comparable to either the declaration of war or the sort of natural or man made disasters as mentioned above.

What they are is an illustration of how we are governed by a ‘Uniparty’ a system where both the Tories and the Labour Party are as equally bad and as authoritarian as each other. I say that not because I’m an anti-vaxxer or anything like that, I’m pro-vaccine including the Covid vaccines as I can see from looking at the evidence including the massive drop in deaths and that without a vaccine against Covid the current UK death toll might be much higher than the 170,000 that it is already. Without the vaccine it’s quite possible that we could be looking at between 300,000 and 500,000 deaths.

But the covid vaccine passport system is a sledgehammer to crack a nut, especially in nations such as the UK where voluntary vaccine take up has been very high. It’s also a policy that when instituted elsewhere does not seem to have worked in either bringing down infections or encouraging people to be vaccinated. In addition to that this new law has built in within it the capacity to be misused and used capriciously, something we’ve seen with other laws such as those relating to ‘hate speech’ which do not reduce hate, but do reduce the floorspace available for debate about contentious issues, contentious individuals and contentious groups.

Whilst I believe that every member of NHS staff who have contact with patients should be vaccinated against Covid, they should do so voluntarily although there is precedent for mandating vaccination NHS workers against certain diseases such as Hepatitis A and B. Bearing in mind that the largest group of Covid vaccine refusniks in the UK come from ethnic minorities and that the NHS employs many people of an ethnic minority background, I suspect that mandating Covid vaccines for NHS staff may be a cause of unnecessary division. This policy might even have similar effects to the vaccine mandate in care homes which has resulted in people leaving their employment in the care sector thereby creating yet more stress on an already stressed sector of services.

Politically last night’s vote was massive in its significance and the size of the rebellion may well weaken the Prime Minister’s position just as the, slightly larger rebellion by MP’s over Brexit weakened the former PM Theresa May. Also the sight of a Tory government promoting a policy that is so concerning and worrying that it can only be forced through with the assistance of a Labour Party who would be even more authoritarian about Covid than the Tories are is not a good look. It feeds the idea that both parties are the same and will either cause a massive bout of apathy at the ballot box resulting in Britons being led by the same shit political class but just elected on fewer votes or a withdrawal of support for the current two main parties. The first option is one that I dread as voter apathy is never a good thing and gives us crappy politicians like Sadiq Khan for example whilst the second option is one that could be better if it helps to give credibility to alternative political parties.

As for the Tories, last night’s vote drew a distinction between those MP’s who are willing to stand on principle or listen to their voters and those who care only for themselves and their own career advancement. It’s notable that only those Tory MP’s who were free of external pressures by not being part of the payroll vote as either Cabinet Ministers or Parliamentary Private Secretaries, rebelled. They rebelled because they could afford to, because their jobs were not on the line if they did.

There are now two Tory parties, one made up of the rebels who whether rightly or wrongly depending on your point of view on the issues at hand, followed their consciences and the will of those who elected them and the selfish payroll vote made up of those who are more interested in climbing the greasy pole than representing their voters. It remains to be seen which Tory party will prevail.

Politically this is a pyrrhic victory for Boris Johnson, he’s got what he wanted, or rather what the authoritarian civil servants advising him wanted but it is a victory that comes at a cost. That cost might be the loss of seats that might otherwise have been held, especially seats in working class areas that have borne the brunt of covid authoritarianism and maybe Boris Johnson’s job itself. We are only one day away from the Shropshire North by-election and we shall see then if the weakness of Boris Johnson who needed the help of a Labour Party that still has not neutralised its extremists to get a key policy passed, will cut through to the voters in that constituency.

The Government might have won this one but at the cost of damaging both politics and the confidence that the electorate have in the political system.