General Chat

Having seen and heard a fair bit on TV about vaccine passports I am wondering how would they work if people don't have a smart phone .

Neither I or OH have smart phones so how would we be able to show a 'passport'.

I get so fed up of people assuming that everyone has these things.

We have no driving licence, passport or smart phone and sometimes it's as if we don't exist. :-S :-S

I do have a passport, but no smart phone or driving licence and often feel the same as you.

I have no current passport, no driving licence, and my smartphone is in my sister's name!
It will be a similar fiasco to the Government's (not the NHS's) 'Test & Trace', where, even if you do have a smartphone, it will need to be a 'newer' one, and will have to have enough space to download Government cr*p.

People don't buy smartphones, so the Government can use them!
Should people really have to, say, delete photographs from their smartphone to download a passport?'
The same could be said for their 'proposal' that people should have to provide identity when voting - no doubt that, too would be on a smartphone.

If the Government want to use 'our' property for their business - fine - but they should buy and pay for that property!
Likewise with laptops, which children need for schoolwork, even without a pandemic. Why should parents have to buy them? We used text books, which belonged to the school, and were provided free. We gave them back when we'd finished with them - and it should be the same with laptops.

Rant over :-D :-D

An elderly friend of a friend is having problems with her bank. She is taken by a borrowed wheelchair. The bank won’t accept an out of date passport ( too frail to need a new one) or an out of date driving licence which can’t be renewed by post, apparently. Not up to date with what happens next.

But does it have to be an actual passport

We get a card with the record of the jabs given anyway

Couldn’t that be officially endorsed in some way

I don't have a passport, driving licence or smart phone and don't want any of them.

I imagine that you would get a letter or some other form from your doctor to prove you have had the vaccine (which you may have to pay for as you do for any other official letter from the doctor). I am all for this.

I know the government are still thinking about needing them for opening up businesses in England but I for one would feel much happier going into a restaurant or cinema etc. if I knew everyone around me had been vaccinated.

How many of those who think they are a restriction of our civil liberties would be happy to be operated on by a surgeon who didn't have a certificate to prove they had been vaccinated for Hepatitis B ?

Kath. x

I don't have a smartphone, nor do I intend to get one for these purposes.
Funnily enough, I have just deleted an offer from Costa Coffee that came via email, I have a loyalty card. The offers are only ever available via their app, so no good to me.
I also had a grumble in the Body Shop, they sent me a voucher by email, which I needed to show in the shop. However the manager bypassed that and gave me it anyway.

Re the vaccine 'passport', we got a card with the date and batch number of the first jab, second due any day now. But it didn't have my name on, I filled that in myself.
But generally, most over 60's will be vaccinated so shouldn't need to have to prove it.
The ones who can't be could have an exemption cert, and the ones who choose not to don't deserve to be out anyway.

And for identity, many of us do have bus passes with a photo on.

Yes, grannyfranny, my bus pass is the only photo identity I have but not many places accept it as such.

If I need to do any business in person at the bank I always have to take a recent household bill and an up to date bank statement with me. I then have to go through the process of being able to tell them when and where I have used my bank card and for how much to prove who I am. It really annoys me that it is so difficult to get access to my own money when I have been with the same bank for more than 50 years. I don't even use my card that much as I am old fashioned enough to prefer cash.

Kath. x

I don't have a bus pass, I'm not old enough.
In some areas, you can choose a bus pass, or a train fare reduction pass - which doesn't require a photo.

I struggle with identity via the household bills or banking, as OH does all that online.
I can't remember what I needed for a bus pass, I know I struggled to find suitable ID.
I think now I can use my passport and driving licence, both have photos and one must have my address. However my bus pass was renewed without needing more proof.

I have my photo bus pass but as said before this is not accepted in most places.

The ID in banks I can understand if you are opening a new account but when you have had an account or more than one for years it does get annoying. One bank wouldn't accept bills of any kind even though I had a credit card with them at the time. and just wanted to open a current account with them. So went to another bank for both.

Regards the vac. pass. I have no problem with showing a card or such but I don't want to have to buy another device for it. ..

Good rant Maggie, well said. :-D :-D

Ladies i have to agree with all of what has been said. My parents do not have smartphones and mum does not have a passport.

So if you get an actual covid certificate, unless it has your picture on it, then whats to stop anyone giving that cert to anyone say going to a football match or nightclub?

In anycase, how is that going to work when you have say 5k people queuing up to get in to a large stadium or at night to go into a nightclub etc...It would just add to the waiting time to get in along with being searched.

Some people cant have the jag, pregnant ladies for one so I think its discrimination if they and others can't enter certain places without a certificate.

In anycase, it has been said that having the Covid jag will prevent you becoming severely unwell if you catch it but you can still pass it on to others even if you have had the jag??? So being in a restaurant where everyone has been jagged will reduce your chances of catching Covid but still no guarantee.

And yes, what if your smartphone isnt the latest one? I certainly am not changing mine every year or so just to have the latest one.

The airlines use to let you fly within the Uk on the strength of a photo ID card like a bus pass and no passport required but that has gone now so my mum can't fly up here unless she applies for a passport which costs a lot of money.

I do feel my civil liberties are being reduced and my ability to travel and go where i want are slowing decreasing on a daily basis.

Florence in the hebrides

Found the following on Google. Also EasyJet say you only need photographic ID, which can be an out-of-date passport.

****If you are flying solely within the UK, including Northern Ireland, you do not need a passport but we advise that you carry photographic identification with you when travelling, such as your passport or driving licence. This may be requested at certain points in your journey.****

About vaccine passports for pubs etc., we were not given cards or anything to say we had been done. When we had the second jabs, I asked the nurse about passports and she said that until the government decided what it wanted they weren't doing anything!!

In Scotland all medical records are on line, and all vaccinations are on a centralised database so if proof is required it can easily be obtained by anyone authorised to access the records.

OH said that the certificates will need updating every time we get a booster.

Yes but a buss pass with a photo will not be accepted now as ID on a flight. It says passport of driving licence.If you are elderly like my mum, she doesnt drive or have a passport. We asked a few years ago if her buss pass was acceptable on easy jet and BA but they said no.

Florence in the hebrides

Back in the good old days, smallpox vaccination certificates were accepted with no photographic identity required

That's true - I still have mine, somewhere.
And the huge scar on my arm is evidence of a smallpox jab! :-D