Big Brother Watch hosts Civil Liberties in a Crisis: the left case against Covid IDs.
Covid passes are the nightmare that many on the left feared Blair’s ID cards would become – domestic permits loaded with sensitive personal data, throwing the door open to discrimination. That is the starting point for Johnson’s Covid IDs – not the dystopian destination.
Exclusion, checkpoints, and a two-tier society are all major risks – some would say, inevitable consequences – of a Covid pass scheme.
Although Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called Covid passports ‘UnBritish’, reflecting the country’s long-held aversion to carrying papers, they’re soon to be mandatory under the Welsh Labour government’s plans. One of Labour’s foremost guardians of human rights, Shami Chakrabarti, has warned that these “electronic identity apps” would be discriminatory and illiberal.
Can the Labour left win the argument against an internal health pass scheme? Or is Labour, once again, becoming the party of ID cards? Is Covid exceptionalism overriding civil liberties on the left?
We bring together key Labour voices to discuss the left case against Covid IDs.
Chairing the event is Freddie Sayers, Executive Editor of UnHerd. Speakers are Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, former Shadow Attorney General and former director of Liberty; Rebecca Long-Bailey MP; Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP; Dawn Butler MP; Emily Benn (Chief of Staff, Tortoise Media); Silkie Carlo (director of Big Brother Watch).
Timecodes:
0:00 – Intro
2:28 – Panel Discussion
1:18:36 – Silkie Carlo Speech
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