Work from home advice returns from tomorrow with covid passport vote this week

MP Craig Mackinlay will vote against mandatory vaccine passports

Tomorrow (December 13) brings the return of work from home ‘advice’ from government as part of its Plan B proposals to control the spread of the Omicron variant of covid.

This followed the reintroduction of compulsory  face coverings in shops, cinemas, theatres and places of worship – although not hospitality – last Friday (December 10).

And on Tuesday MPs will vote on making the NHS Covid Pass mandatory for entry into nightclubs and settings where large crowds gather – including unseated indoor events with 500 or more attendees, unseated outdoor events with 4,000 or more attendees and any event with 10,000 or more attendees.

People will need to demonstrate proof of two vaccine doses via the NHS app. Proof of a negative lateral flow test will also be accepted.

If approved the measure will come into force the following day (December 15).

Omicron; what Government says:

The government says this is due to data suggesting Omicron has a very high growth rate and is spreading rapidly. Early analysis from the UK Health Security Agency suggests the doubling time could be as little as 2.5 to 3 days.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) estimates that if Omicron continues to grow at the present rate, the variant will become the dominant strain, accounting for more than 50% of all COVID-19 infections in the UK by mid-December. It is projected that if current trends continue unchanged, the UK will exceed one million infections a day by the end of this month.

As of yesterday (December 11), there have been 1,898 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant in the UK. Cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi has said there are people with the variant now in hospital. There are no deaths recorded.

There are now reports that government officials are working on a ‘plan c’ which could include having to use the NHS Covid app to go to a pub or restaurant, face masks being compulsory in all indoor spaces and widening the use of the vaccine passport.

Restrictions backlash

However, the reintroduction of covid measures has provoked a backlash on the Conservative back benches with up to 60 Tory MPs expected to vote against the measures.

Among them will be South Thanet’s Craig Mackinlay, who is a member of the COVID Recovery Group (CRG), an informal group of Conservative MPs who opposed the UK government’s decision to introduce a second period of lockdown measures for England during the COVID-19 pandemic, and who voted against the restrictions.

MP Craig Mackinlay with Dr Ash Peshen at the Saga vaccination centre

He said: “I’m a huge supporter of the Covid vaccine but opposed to vaccine passports and any mandating in a free society. Nor is the evidence there to support reverting to lockdowns again.

Implementing restrictions ‘just in case’ is not good enough when jobs, livelihoods and lives are at stake. That’s why I’ll be voting against these measures.”

The MP was previously one of 63 who signed a letter in February to say there would be ‘no justification’ for any legislative restrictions on public life to remain once all nine priority groups – meaning all those over 50 and those who are clinically vulnerable – had received a covid vaccination by the end of April. The letter called for the reopening of schools and pubs and restaurants.

In his latest column update Mr Mackinlay says perhaps it is time to say we can do no more than has already been done.

He says: “In the worst case – vaccines not terribly good and symptoms severe – can we seriously lockdown again for months?

“Let me outline how the timings work: the pharmaceutical companies can easily re-formulate a better vaccine more specific to any variant, but this takes about two months. Then there is the not insignificant matter of bulking up a new formulation for the UK into millions of doses. The revised vaccine then needs to be got into millions of arms, perhaps twice.

“Just looking at the last cycle that we’ve been through – the first vaccination was on 8th December 2020 and proper opening up didn’t happen until 19th July 2021, a cycle of seven months.

“Can we seriously do that again with the corollary issues of the NHS grinding to a halt for other health issues, education and young lives put on hold, business failures, liberties restricted and the added cost to the public purse?

“I’m not sure the financial markets and Bank of England creativity could support another £400Bn of borrowing if we were to repeat it. But say we did, as many will be calling for, the likelihood is that yet another variant would rear its head at the end of it, we’d do it again etc, etc.

“Perhaps we just have to say that’s it, we’ve done collectively and individually everything we could and we can do no more.”

North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale

North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale will vote for the latest measures, saying: “I believe that the Covid/Omicron measures being introduced by the Government on scientific advice are necessary and proportionate and I shall vote accordingly.”

The veteran MP says few people have issue with wearing face coverings and although the work from home advice will cause diffulty for some, those that can will and those that can’t will continue to attend their workplaces.

On the vaccine passport issue he says: “When I said, recently, that having travelled within mainland Europe during the past twelve months through countries where the production of a “Vax App” is commonplace I found no difficulty or impediment in obtaining entry to restaurants or to the `Bar/Tabac` I was told that “Yes but that is `over there`; we are British”. That is xenophobia in spades. “

He adds: “You have an absolute right to determine what is pumped into your body and what is not and I will fiercely defend that right. What you do not have is a right to then mix with others and to disseminate the infections that you may be carrying because you have unilaterally decided to exercise your right to decline a vaccination.

“To enter a football ground or a nightclub or a theatre you have to purchase a ticket. If you do not have the money to buy that ticket you may not gain entry. The so-called `Vaccination Passport” is part of the entry ticket. If you do not have one you cannot reasonably demand to be admitted. And unlike the funds needed to buy admission to a private venue the vaccination is free of charge and to accept or decline it is entirely your choice. So the arguments about `discrimination` and a `two-tier society` are, in my view, libertarian claptrap.

“Life is full of consequences. You `pays your money and you takes your choice` I believe that I have a duty to keep as many of the people that I represent as safe as possible for as much of the time as possible and I shall pursue that line of duty for as long as I remain a Member of Parliament.”

Thanet data

Vaccination

In Thanet the seven day rolling infection rate up until December 6 stands at 569.1 per 100,000, taking Thanet over the national average. The UK average is 502.1.In Thanet there has been one confirmed Omicron and one S-Gene Target Failure recorded.

As of December 7 there were 53 covid in-patients at East Kent Hospitals (QEQM/Ashford and Canterbury) with 9 people on ventilation. On the same date last year there were 206 covid in-patients with 18 on ventilation.

Thanet has recorded zero deaths related to covid in December.

Thanet vaccinations given as of December 10 are first dose 106,677; second dose 98,112 and booster/third dose 55,426.

People aged 30 and over will be able to book an appointment for their COVID-19 booster jab from tomorrow (Monday 13 December) as the NHS vaccine programme extends once again.

41 Comments

  1. Gale:“You have an absolute right to determine what is pumped into your body and what is not and I will fiercely defend that right. What you do not have is a right to then mix with others and to disseminate the infections that you may be carrying because you have unilaterally decided to exercise your right to decline a vaccination.”

    Wrong and absolute, unscientific, unproven nonsense.

    The public may have been convinced by the initial promotions for having vaccines, but repeatedly the vaccines have not proven to stop transmission or contraction of the many variants of Covid-19.

    We are even subject to a thinly disguised Booster which is in fact an additional vaccine, 3 for some in 6 months, to make effective what has been very short-lived protection indeed.

    If the vaccine passport is adopted in law, then watch out for future abuse of our lives. I am ashamed that the Labour Party appears to be supporting this too. Seek an amendment and if that’s disallowed then abstain.

    Masks, effective T cell testing, focus on high-quality ventilation and social distancing will all help.

    Furthermore, there appear to be fantasy plans here as the true effects of Omicron are not understood.

    Nor indeed are the increase in side effects from vaccines, openly discussed or deserving of the additional research and data gathering that they deserve. At least now the NHS will try not to kill you on a ventilator as they now realise the air pressure doesn’t have to be so high.

    In the meantime get the NHS properly funded so that it works as it should and not just as a government vehicle for miserable societal control.

    I am as locked down as is humanly possible and if I have to go out use an FFP3 mask – hands, face and a two fingered salute to this current government.

    • My goodness! You’ve not married to Democrat, are you?
      The principle reasons for getting vaccinated are 1) to protect you from the worst effects of the virus, and 2) to stave off unnecessary burdens on the NHS.
      Vaccine passport: bring it on.
      Never mind large venues; what about the pub, the bus, the supermarket? Anywhere where there’s a chance the disease might spread.

      • Yes Andrew-maybe you would like to be taxed for oxygen & need a passport to go to the toilet, make a phone call etc as well? You might think an apartheid/Stasi state is a great idea, but the reality is very different & all your other freedoms(not many left in reality) will eventually be taken away as well once such a thing happens.

        Passports have been shown not to work in other countries.

        The biggest burden on the NHS is the backlog of cases from the last nearly two years of ignoring patients with actual life threatening conditions, while throwing everything at something that kills a tiny fraction & most of those the elderly who are at or beyond normal life expectancy, the obese & those with existing serious health conditions. Now they are doing it all over again-the few surgeries that do see patients cancelling appointments for patients including the elderly for something that hasn’t killed one person yet & only puts a tiny minority in hospital.

        The other big burden on the NHS is of course alcohol, drug & tobacco addictions/issues.

        • “for something that hasn’t killed one person yet & only puts a tiny minority in hospital.”
          That callous statement of yours us beyond belief.
          What little credibility you might have had has now evaporated completely.

          • So you think these restrictions are not overkill based on the evidence thus far seen about Omicron? Where nobody has died that we know of & the main side effects are sore throat, runny or blocked nose & some aching muscles?

          • The overwhelming majority of whom were at or beyond the average life expectancy, had other serious comorbidities, or chose to be obese/morbidly obese. Sad, but this how how nature works.

            You have to weigh up the health of the nation overall from restrictive measures-mental health, physical health as people with actual real issues die or are left in pain, or cannot even get to see a doctor, the financial cost to the economy etc & at some point say this thing is here to stay, there will be mutations & we will have to learn to live with it like the common cold, flu etc. That point should have been earlier this year-now we are going down the same old route again with cancelling existing operations, appointments etc.

    • Unfortunately Labour are a million miles away from their roots of socialism, standing up for liberty & the common man. Now they are a bunch of champagne sipping Tories & so are the Lib Dems-who showed what they are in 2010 by getting into bed with the Tories for a small amount of power as the very minor party in office, who are also going to vote for this-both under the guise of saving the NHS rather than Boris. Plan C will be enacted next year-taking away even more basic rights.

    • What about my right to NOT be infected by the one third of people who have the virus, and do not know it as they are symptom free? This means they can spread the virus with impunity, and not even know it! Any side effects have been proved to be statistically insignificant! So far nearly 150,000 people in the UK have died of the virus, and counting! If you go on TDC’s website you will see how many people in Thanet have the virus, and in the last 3 weeks it has jumped from around 500 a week, to over 800!

      Most of the people infected will have been vaccinated, and its a proven scientific fact that vaccinations decrease the severity of the virus, meaning fewer deaths, and fewer hospitalisations. This is why I would like to see vaccinations made mandatory, because without it our NHS would be overwhelmed, and its close to being on its knees now!

    • Hey thats great but before leaving your bubble to go socialising i am sure your rapid flow home tests (there free) are negative.
      Not testing and possibly living in your own bubble of covid is so not desirable to others.

      As a self employer at home only its known who is responsible for testing.

      Free testing kits are available pre test every day before visiting pubs, bars, restaurants and any other where an approved face cover is not required. Locations will vary by date.

      Working from home only stops future infections in your employers establishments. Not in your local neighbourhood but youll know that and have insurance.

      cheers hic! (highly intensive carrier)

    • Our MP Sir roger voted to bring back the death penalty too. He doesn’t mess about with his beliefs.
      There is scientific data coming through that the Omicron Coronavirus, although spreads much faster, is weaker than the Delta variant, so could allow natural herd immunity without causing death or high rates of hospitalisation. This needs more research though as it’s still a new variant, but it might give us all some hope for the future.

      • Yes, but what a shame a petulant child decided he had to take ‘revenge’ on the media & public on Tuesday for his & his cronies lies.

      • There isn’t enough data yet to say what the consequences of an Omicron wave will be. There is a very tiny hint from South Africa that the Omicron variant does not make people as sick as does Delta, but the data needs careful analysis to see what’s what.
        In the meanwhile, it makes sense to be as cautious as we can, unless Omicron turns out to be really unpleasant.
        Simple things like wearing a mask and social distancing are not taking anyone’s freedom away, but they will help to stop the spread of disease.
        Oh! And get vaccinated and boosted.

    • And the Lib Dems-did you ever think you would see leftie socialists & champions of liberty voting for people to show papers like the Stasi era, just to access basic rights?

      • well, you just proven the socialists are not at all champions of liberty, the stasis were the Nationalsozialistische party. (”socialists’, that is). Have you ever heard what the socialists have done in Eastern Europe behind the iron curtain, when it’s all on their own, no opposition, no checks? (or maybe the prison experiment, Zimbardo, too?)

    • What a myth that is. Is the hard right that are beating their drums about freedoms and antivax…. Makes me laugh when right learners like yourself claim that!

  2. Well I think we will all die one day regardless if one has had all the jabs or not.
    In the meantime we all be in locked up or demanded to get stabbed again and again, if we don’t do as told we cannot go to many places if at all , have to wait to see what the boss says in a couple of days but hey he may change his mind next week.

    • Yes, the problem for anybody who has had the Moderna jab is it is ineffective against this strain-so they will have to get three Pfizer jabs & boosters. If another strain of this type happens in the next six months people will likely have to get three more jabs & boosters. Pfizer must be happy-a licence to print money.

  3. I think the parties are alike , would labour have been any different i think maybe.
    Perhaps if the boss could hang on another couple of years to have is home decorated the money could have been spent on the nhs.
    No one knows the full cost and as for the alleged parties last year the boss has asked for them to be investigated , don’t he know if there was a party ?
    And he runs the country.

    • He should know as he has been shown at it. Too many lies told so he doesn’t know what is real anymore. He and Roger must get along really well. At least for once Mackinlay used his sense.

      • He did over the sewage vote as well, while Gale abstained. Before they did the reverse ferret-after angry people all over the country pointed out about Boris & his pals blabbing on about the environment & how urgent action was needed/taking the leading role at COP 26 etc had then just voted to carry on letting the water companies pump sewage everywhere.

  4. The passport system is completely illogical for experimental jabs (with no long term safety data) which allow people to still catch and spread the so called virus. And I’m hearing some say they will not have the booster, after suffering serious side effects from the first or second jab. And they feel completely unsupported by their GPs now on how to cope. What about other groups who threaten the cult of the NHS – the smokers, the vapers, the obese, the drinkers, the drug partakers, the risky kite surfers, the daft? Good for a globalist reset. But not for one that cares about a functional society. Why would they rush all of this? Why are the enormous global protests on all of this played right down…. ?

  5. I for one time agree with what Gale said but its not just about reducing infection(the vaccines do this). There will be even more victims if our health system is overloaded. Get vaccinated. Even if you get infected it will not be as bad.

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