Michael Gove was up this morning in the Commons fielding questions following last night’s controversial announcement that vaccine passports could be required for the pub. Amid collective fury at such a prospect by journalists, parliamentarians and policy wonks alike, William Wragg, the baby faced assassin of moderate Toryism, stepped up to ask the obvious question:
Does my right honourable friend, the chancellor of the duchy of lancaster, still agree with himself in his opposition to covid vaccine certification to attend the pub as he expressed on Sky News recently?
A chuckling, bashful Gove responded thus:
Well, consistency is often the hobgoblin of small minds but my view on this issue is consistent that a system that relied purely on vaccination would not be appropriate. But what would be right was a system that ensured we could open up our economy to the maximum extent that takes account of both the vaccine status but also a recent test status and indeed potentially also antibody status as well. But the best thing to do is to be guided by scientific and clinical advice and then to subject that advice to proper rigorous, ethical questioning rather than taking an instant, off the shelf, instinctive approach.
A radical critic, polemicist and champion of individualism, Mr S wonders why the words of a nineteenth century abolitionist came to to a fumbling Michael Gove’s mind.
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