Thursday, April 08, 2021

They're Not 'Handcuffs', They're 'Freedom Bracelets'

Seriously, us sane people are already hanging on like Charlton Heston in The Omega Man without having our own side using nonsense phrases like 'vaccine passports'.

No, they're not 'vaccine passports', they're 'life licences'. Literally everything you want to do will be subject to government approval. 

Forget talking about Henry VIII, Oliver Cromwell or whoever your preferred villain from British history is, none of these guys insisted you needed their OK to drop into the local tavern or buy some turnips. 

Once this system is in place it's all over. And no, the government is not spending tens of billions on a system that they will scrap after a year. Surely everyone now realises that the constant stream of new strains - Brazillian! South African! Atlantian! - are just prepping the ground for them to wheel out new threats every time anyone suggests removing restrictions?

Of course, they say it's all about muh saving lives except spending tens of billions on almost any other area of healthcare would save actual lives, not merely theoretical lives saved from the Fijian, Chilean or Nigerian strains. Overhauling our shambolic cancer and maternity sectors alone would save 10x the lives these life licences would save, and they'd be real lives, not theoretical deaths from the some hypothetical future strains. 

It needs to be emphasised how intrusive this system will be. The government having a complete record of where everyone has been is the least dangerous part of it. 

What's our biggest health problem aside from the Worst Virus Evah?

Yep, obesity, so what's to stop life licences being programmed to only allow people to visit restaurants or pubs twice a week? 

Nothing. At all. 

Equally, even if you're a puritan and you think only an alcoholic would need to go the pub more than twice a week, it can work the other way. Fail to go to the gym at least twice in the last seven days? The system can take your £50 fixed penalty out of your account automatically at the start of Day 8. 

This isn't a conspiracy theory, this is a capability baked into the system. Once it's up and running all this naturally follows. All it takes is for people to accept that the public is accountable to the government not the other way round. 

In fact, it can even be meshed with supermarket check out systems. No more loading up on pizza. It'll be max two with every visit, and then only if you don't use your calorie allowance on cakes or ice cream. 

And then there's the bizarre (non) coincidence that this is all happening as the eco-mentalists are demanding people give up eating meat. Could these same systems be used to enforce that? Well, yep, again once the system is in place all it will need is a small tweak to add this capability. 

This is not a small thing, this is a huge thing. We're being asked to accept a complete inversion of how our system of government works. Once you accept that your rights are now privileges to be granted or withdrawn at the whim of the government then to all intents and purposes freedom is over. 

2 comments:

JuliaM said...

"...without having our own side using nonsense phrases like 'vaccine passports'"

My side? No, I don't think so, not any more.

Anonymous said...

I have read your blog for many years DJ without leaving any comments. You always seem to hit the nail squarely on the head and you do it with wit and a turn of phrase I cannot hope to emulate. Hence my reluctance to offer any comments. I make an exception here because in this post you have described our predicament in a nutshell.

It looks bleak and daunting, I fear for the future of my children and grand children. I only wish more people could see the end game of covid passports and not be so trusting of Boris and Co.

Ken Brown