Who will police vaccine passports?

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

There is a distinction to be made between doing what we must or should do to protect each other, and doing what the government requires us to do to cement its power over us.

Like Sean O'Grady, I see no reason why we should not be required to show proof of vaccination, obviously with exceptions or other arrangements made for people who have a good reason not to accept the jab. People talk indignantly about the dangers of a "two-tier society" as if the unvaccinated were a deprived group. But vaccination, unlike race, gender, poverty, etc. is purely a choice, and will fairly soon be freely available to all adults. If someone chooses to put others at risk they might simply have to forgo such inessentials as attending football matches and cinemas.

However, there are practical difficulties with passports. Although some publicans might choose to hire a bouncer, most will probably not, and they can't be expected to be legally responsible for policing their customers.

In persuading people to be vaccinated, "carrot" is better than "stick" as a way of achieving compliance. Vaccination passports could be seen as another controlling manoeuvre by the government. The authoritarian Police and Crime Bill can only be a disincentive to those already suspicious of vaccination, who will be made even less likely to comply if they feel generally coerced. Had it not been for Covid, I would have been out on the streets recently, protesting peacefully. But even for those who are not outraged by this bill, it provides yet another example of the PM's unerring instinct for bad timing.

Susan Alexander

South Gloucestershire

Women in handcuffs

The police have been criticised for “women in handcuffs”. 

Is it the case that some are asking for equality in much of life, but not when it comes to public order or the prevention of serious disease?

Cole Davis

Norwich

Read More:

• Race report has fuelled the controversy it was supposed to lay to rest
• The awkward truth about the government’s race report
• What will post-Covid Britain look like for the black community?

Voter trust

Sam Boote states quite categorically that Labour does not do deals with other parties.

Apart from the Liberal /Labour pact of 1977-78, it was Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson who ruled out any alliance with Labour at the last election. When Nick Clegg was the Lib Dem leader running against Ed Miliband and David Cameron many Labour voters switched to Lib Dem as a strategic vote on the assumption that in a hung parliament the Lib Dems would form some form of arrangement with Labour to keep the Conservatives out of power. As history shows, non-Tory voters were let down when Clegg went into coalition with Cameron and this disappointment was clearly shown by the disastrous results for the Lib-Dems in the 2019 election.

It would seem that Labour voters do not trust the Lib-Dems to join in an anti-Tory alliance based on past experience.

Patrick Cleary

Gloucestershire

Banning the hijab

Every Muslim woman across Europe must be feeling perturbed as the French Senate votes to ban the Hijab for Muslims under 18.

I wonder if there is any other piece of clothing, apart from the Hijab of a Muslim woman, which has become a peril for civilised and progressive countries. A hijab-clad woman is indeed very powerful.

Policing the clothes of women and dictating their outward appearance will never help a religiously diverse country. Such approaches are bound to create a divide and discontent nonetheless.

Arfa Ahmad

Swindon