Vaccine passports aren't about public protection but our unhealthy addiction to fear

I know! I know! Another bloody Covid blog! I’m as sick of writing them as I’m sure you are of reading them. But there is no reprieve. With every step in the right direction, it seems we face yet another horror – yet another authoritarian leap that would have seemed unthinkable just a couple of years ago.

The latest of such horrors is vaccine passports, which I have no doubt will be extended and extended until every activity that might involve leaving your house will require you to present your papers, and of course to get the NHS app whether you want the dam thing or not.

The real story of masks isn't one of public health but a marriage of fear and toxic politics

It’s the end of the road for the mandatory wearing of masks. When they were introduced, few subjects proved more polarising and more capable of provoking visceral rage between the two sides of the debate. As we prepare for their wearing to become a matter of personal choice, the controversy has brewed up once more, and the topic is just as divisive.