Forget Covid passes and masks – there are bigger threats to freedom in Britain right now

The government is currently pushing through legislation that echoes elements of the authoritarian regimes I have lived and reported under during my career, writes Bel Trew

Some bills or amendments are so disturbing that international rights groups have spoken out. Yet critics of Covid restrictions are silent (Leon Neal/PA) (PA Wire)

One of the most discombobulating things about living and working for so many years abroad is re-entry shock. On returning home you are plunged back into everyday details of the domestic agenda of households, politicians and rulers – and, hand on heart, I can say it gets more disturbing each trip home.

Over the weekend I watched GB News to try to catch up on a corner of British political thought I don’t have a huge amount of exposure to, living in Lebanon. On Nigel Farage’s show there were long discussions about the divisive notion of vaccine passports and affiliated measures that they said were restrictions of liberties and wouldn’t help stem the spread of Covid. These views were largely expressed by a Conservative MP, but were echoed by others across the political divide and across other British news channels.

Vaccine passports and Covid passes (in some cases even mask mandates) have been dismissed as massive encroachments on our freedoms. Alarms were sounded. And some even took to the streets this weekend.