Yahoo Finance Vaccine passports would be final straw for battered pubs, warns Wetherspoon boss
A vaccine passport scheme would force reluctant bar staff on to the front line of the Covid battle for civil liberties and could be “the last straw” for hundreds of struggling pubs, Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin has warned.
Writing for The Daily Telegraph, Mr Martin says that pubs are “hanging on for dear life” and have been “devastated by G-force changes of direction” as the Government prepares to begin reopening hospitality next month.
The comments are a blow to scientists and government officials hoping that landlords will voluntarily turn unvaccinated customers away.
There are fears that introducing a requirement for vaccine passports to gain access to venues such as pubs and restaurants could create a “two-tier” system that prevents unvaccinated people from returning to pubs.
As well as people who choose not to be vaccinated, this could also lock out other groups who are advised not to have a jab such as expectant mothers and those with allergies.
Read Tim Martin’s full article below:
In Wetherspoon’s 41 years in business there have been seven prime ministers, three major recessions, floods, wars and health catastrophes including Sars and HIV. Contrary to propaganda, 2020-21 is not the first year when excess mortality has been high and Britain has faced a major crisis.
Yet at no time have government actions seemed so arbitrary and capricious as today, and at no time has real debate been so ruthlessly curtailed – facilitated by extensive use of emergency powers. The differentiating factor is the current autocratic predilection for media control and PR initiatives, with no merit in science or common sense. This has brought entire industries to their knees.
Suggestions for vaccination passports follow September’s moonshots and pub curfews, October’s baffling tier systems, November’s circuit-breaker, December’s “substantial meals” with a pint, and January’s winter lockdown.
There have been numerous random acts of destruction, none more symbolic than the shuttering of golf clubs – short of kissing your caddie, eschewed even by Tiger Woods, transmission of the virus is vanishingly unlikely on the fairway.
The latest brainwave, announced a few days ago, is that you can drink inside marquees, outside pubs, but not inside pubs themselves. Just imagine the expense and difficulties of implementation – and the impossibility of rational explanation to customers.
The idea of vaccination passports is surely fanciful and disproportionate. After the first lockdown, pubs successfully introduced an array of social distancing and hygiene practices, supervised by licensing and health authorities.
For example, Wetherspoon recorded over 50m customer visits from July to December without a single reported case of a virus outbreak among customers, as defined by the health authorities. Nor was there any evidence of transmission of the virus from customers to staff, or vice versa.
The real source of transmission, as most people now know, has been hospitals, care homes and households.
As regards the latter, Ian Ward, leader of Birmingham city council, said in September: “The data we have show that the infection rate has risen, mainly due to social interactions, particularly private household gatherings. In shops and hospitality venues, there are strict measures in place to ensure they are Covid-free, whereas it is easier to pass on the virus in someone’s house.” Greg Fell, director of public health for Sheffield, and Dr Richard Harling, of Stafford council, told Parliament’s science and technology committee in January that the “bulk of transmission has always been in people’s households”.
For many pubs, hanging on for dear life and devastated by G-force changes of direction, a complex and controversial passport scheme would be the last straw.
It would inevitably put pub staff in the front line of a bitter civil liberties war, with some customers unwilling to be vaccinated or unable to have a jab for medical reasons.
All in all, there is no justification for a passport system. Even before the rapid vaccine rollout, transmission rates in pubs were low. Now that the vulnerable are protected, yet another unworkable and vexatious government initiative will only add to imminent economic chaos, further devastating employment prospects.
Tim Martin is founder and chairman of Wetherspoon
