My votes yesterday

During a busy day in the Commons I voted against the SI requiring mandatory vaccination for anyone involved with a Care Home, and with the government on overseas aid. There was no vote taken on the English laws issue as the entire Opposition supported the government.

76 Comments

  1. Bryan Harris
    July 14, 2021

    Thank you for voting sensibly

    1. SecretPeople
      July 14, 2021

      Yes, thank you, Sir John.

  2. zorro
    July 14, 2021

    Thank you for voting as you did yesterday. It was a shabby display by this government to try and push through such a potentially wide-ranging decision which may/will have wider implications, and sets a dangerous precedent. I see that Macron is introducing ‘vaccine passports’ in France and doubtless Johnson will follow soon enough. The great ‘conspiracy theory’ appears to be playing out in reality on the march to digital identity, CBDCs, and social credit systems…..

    It must stick in your stomach to be even thinly linked with Johnson’s machinations. This ‘dictateur aspirant’ must face the same justice as other such people have faced in the past. Will the British people fight to get back their birthright which was unlawfully stolen from them on 23/03/2020?

    zorro

  3. Bryan Harris
    July 14, 2021

    Our parliament shows itself lacking in oh so many ways — YET AGAIN

    It has become tyrannical.

    They need a does of their own medicine, those that would so easily flout Human rights legislation and rules of decency.

    I DEMAND THAT ALL MP’S THAT VOTED TO IMPOSE VACCINATIONS ON OTHERS BE VACCINATED THEMSELVES IN FULL VIEW OF THE PUBLIC – WITH REAL VACCINES – LET’S SEE HOW THEY LIKE HAVING THEIR RIGHTS TAKEN AWAY SO EASILY

    1. APL
      July 14, 2021

      Bryan Harris: “Our parliament shows itself lacking in oh so many ways — YET AGAIN. It has become tyrannical.”

      No, it has become irrelevant.

      1. Bryan Harris
        July 15, 2021

        I’ll stick with tyrannical – that is far worse than just being irrelevant

  4. Sharon
    July 14, 2021

    I understand the argument that if you work in a care home you need to not be a health hazard to the patients. It would be nice to think that staff would be responsible to realise this for themselves, and accordingly choose to be vaccinated.

    By making it law, means we are now no longer a free country.

    This law could be the thin edge of the wedge
 ministers are already pushing businesses to enforce this vaccine passport.

    The juggernaut that is authoritarian creep, seems to be in top gear, and there’s not enough opposition to stop it.

    Thanks for voting against it JR.

    1. Suzette Burtenshaw
      July 14, 2021

      ‘It would be nice to think that staff would be responsible to realise this for themselves, and accordingly choose to be vaccinated.’

      Perhaps those care workers who have not been vaccinated prefer to wait until the stage 3 trials are finished, I believe sometime in 2023. It would not be unreasonable, surely. Indeed, I wonder there isn’t a legal get-out clause for that reason.

      1. hefner
        July 14, 2021

        The first peer-reviewed results of stage 3 trials of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine were published in the Lancet on 08/12/2020 ‘Safety and efficacy of the ChAdOx1 nCov-19 vaccine (AZD1222) against SARS-Cov-2: an interim analysis of four randomised controlled trials in Brazil, South Africa, and the UK’, by M. Voysey et al.

        The analysis was interim, the Stage 3 trials were not.

  5. lifelogic
    July 14, 2021

    Exactly right. But a great shame over English Laws issue that Starmer’s dire Labour Party are so wrong on almost every issue.

    A long section from Prince Charles today on farming. Can this dope not learn from his mother to keep out of politics, she is after all now 95. He should particularly do this as his views are so juvenile, unscientific and wrong headed. But he should do it anyway even if he ever had anything sensible to say. He was championing Marcus Rashford, Jamie Oliver and fast food chain operator Henry Dimbleby for some reasons not at all clear.

    1. hefner
      July 14, 2021

      Well, if you think Leon is equivalent to Burger King or McDonald, I cannot do much for you 
 even if I wanted 


      1. Peter2
        July 14, 2021

        What is so wrong with the two fast food companies you dislike heffy?
        They are very popular with millions of customers who have a wide choice of different fast food companies to choose from and they create thousands of jobs and create good careers for many young people who train with these fine companies and rise to good management jobs or become franchisees.
        Leon are good too.

        1. hefner
          July 15, 2021

          P2, aren’t you happy that for once a successful chain of fast food (furthermore a bit less into fat- and sugar-rich ingredients) is British, instead of being American. Don’t you have any trace of patriotism in you?

          As for your further comment, have you ever heard about McJobs (i.e., low status, little training, requiring few skills, low-paying, high turnover, little chance of intra-company advancement). What type of dreamer’s cuckoo-land are you inhabiting?

          Please give me an example of some public persona (I’d love a MP if you have one) who started their career ‘with these fine companies’.

          1. Peter2
            July 15, 2021

            Yes hef I have more than a trace of patriotism but think you fail to allow for the huge financial benefits of having such businesses operating, employing tens off thousands of people, paying rents council tax, pensions, wages and many different other taxes here in the UK.
            I realise you ro globalist lefties oddly still hate any American companies who operate here and fully realise the fast food giants are even more hated.
            It might just be elite lefty snobbery or just a dislike of capitalism. I’m not sure which.
            You choose .

          2. hefner
            July 15, 2021

            Obviously you cannot even think of a capitalism in which even huge inequalities would be decreased. Therefore the present state of things is for you perfection, you’re a true Conservative.
            Sorry, I am conservative on a number of points important for me, my family and those dear to me, but obviously not the same points as yours: ‘80 MPs majority’, anti-racism = marxism, vaccine = privation of Freedom, and this type of hodgepodge.

            And I really love your comment farther below about my personal attacks, as I guess I have to take your ‘elite lefty snobbery’ as a compliment. If it is the case, thank you very much.

          3. Peter2
            July 15, 2021

            No heffy.
            I can think of capitalism in which huge inequalities would be decreased.
            No again heffy.
            I don’t think the current situation is perfection.
            And again no heffy.
            I don’t think anti racism is Marxism, nor that the vaccine is privation of freedom here in the UK
            You have mixed me up with someone else and think you have a deep understanding of all my views.
            And you are so wrong it is hilarious.

  6. MiC
    July 14, 2021

    Many private employers – particularly those involving travel – require vaccination for their staff against all manner of things. Furthermore those requirements may change for people already in post.

    People consider this entirely normal.

    There is an ethical question here though, yes.

    However, there is a greater one about the Government’s not doing all that it easily can to protect the lives of residents and of patients in care.

    1. SecretPeople
      July 14, 2021

      Can a government mandate an experimental vaccine when other therapies are available?

      1. zorro
        July 14, 2021

        There will surely be a challenge to it court one hopes?

        zorro

        1. APL
          July 14, 2021

          Zorro: “There will surely be a challenge to it court one hopes?”

          No doubt, that firebrand of freedom, Gina Miller will bring a case.

        2. Narrow Shoulders
          July 14, 2021

          C,mon Gina! – champion of the people

      2. Micky Taking
        July 14, 2021

        what is the experiment you speak of? to see if anybody notices the chip in your arm? The mind control delivered by the fluid? The desire to have everybody vote Conservative?

      3. MiC
        July 14, 2021

        It is not mandating it.

        No one will be forced to have it, just the same as these private companies tell their staff.

        They are free to resign.

        1. Peter2
          July 15, 2021

          MiC
          If employers said accept new terms of employment or resign you would be out there marching holding a placard.

          1. MiC
            July 16, 2021

            They say it all the time.

            It is business as usual in the Tory UK.

            Where have you been?

          2. Peter2
            July 16, 2021

            I am pointing out your inconsistency in you now fully supporting and backing bosses who would fire you for not having a vaccine, yet opposing bosses who fire you for other reasons like if you were to refuse to accept a contract with new terms and conditions.

  7. Philip P.
    July 14, 2021

    Thank you, Sir John, for your principled stand on retaining our constitutional right to dispose of our body freely. I hope it is not further eroded by this government.

    1. MiC
      July 14, 2021

      Where in the UK’s “constitution” does it say that???

      1. Philip P.
        July 14, 2021

        Common law, enunciated by Blackstone. See also Airedale N.H.S. Trust v. Bland, [1993] 1 All E.R. 821 at 881-82, : “Any treatment given by a doctor to a patient which is invasive (i.e. involves any interference with the physical integrity of the patient) is unlawful unless done with the consent of the patient: It constitutes the crime of battery and the tort of trespass to the person.” Consent cannot be lawfully obtained by coercion, as you must know.

        1. MiC
          July 14, 2021

          Common law is not part of any constitution of the UK.

          1. dixie
            July 15, 2021

            The UCL Constitution Unit would appear to disagree with you and believe that Common Law is part of the ‘uncodified’ British Constitution;

            “… the British Constitution has evolved over a long period of time, reflecting the relative stability of the British polity. It has never been thought necessary to consolidate the basic building blocks of this order in Britain. What Britain has instead is an accumulation of various statutes, conventions, judicial decisions and treaties which collectively can be referred to as the British Constitution. It is thus more accurate to refer to Britain’s constitution as an ‘uncodified’ constitution, rather than an ‘unwritten’ one.
            ..
            The British Constitution is derived from a number of sources. Statutes are laws passed by Parliament and are generally the highest form of law. Conventions are unwritten practices which have developed over time and regulate the business of governing. Common law is law developed by the courts and judges through cases.”

          2. MiC
            July 16, 2021

            The UK constitution actually “says” only one thing, that Parliament alone is the law.

            It can pass any Act that it likes, which will trump any relevant common law ruling.

            There is no requirement for supermajorities, nor for any of the protections which define in generally understood usage a modern understanding of what makes a constitution different from ordinary law.

            So it could mandate vaccination without any breach of that UK Constitution, for instance.

    2. Know-Dice
      July 14, 2021

      Only if you have opted out of the compulsory organ donor scheme…

  8. DOM
    July 14, 2021

    It’s a heartbreaking tragedy that there are too few moral politicians like you left.

    I fear freedom of the person, their body, their mind, their voice and their soul are now under direct attack by the Tory-Labour woke political machine. This Neo-Marxist cancer is now out of control and has the capacity to rip apart our nation and cause social division which of course is its aim

    This is all about a vicious form of politics not about humanity

    1. Everhopeful
      July 14, 2021

      I do wish that JR, closely followed by JRM, IDS and the handful of other dissenters ( assuming their protestations are genuine), would ride out on white chargers at first light and save us all!
      Their truth and goodness might just defeat the powers of darkness about to engulf us.
      I fear that we only have prayer left
and we are pretty rusty at that!

      1. JoolsB
        July 14, 2021

        Not JRM. He was only too happy to ditch EVEL.

        1. Everhopeful
          July 14, 2021

          Ah..sorry!
          My list was pretty sparse anyway.
          Oh dear.

  9. Everhopeful
    July 14, 2021

    Well I am relieved that JR voted agin it.
    I was under the impression that coercion in the case of an “emergency approved” drug was internationally illegal. Past experimental medicine remembered!
    It also seems that emergency status for a random jab can not be granted if an alternative therapy ( like ivermectin) is recognised!!
    Who would want to be responsible for forcing a therapy on unwilling people?
    Oh 
thanks to legislation
nobody WOULD be culpable!
    And wasn’t the plague downgraded from a “disease of high consequence” March 2020 and didn’t we reach herd immunity this April?
    So

? Maybe I have got the wrong end of several sticks?
    I’m open to correction.

  10. Sakara Gold
    July 14, 2021

    In a highly disturbing development, the MoD yesterday announced that an outbreak of the Chinese plague virus has been confirmed on the Royal Navy’s flagship, HMS Queen Elizabeth – following a visit to Cyprus. Over 100 RN personnel are said to be affected and other ships in the carrier group have also reported outbreaks.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57830617

    The MoD has confirmed that everybody on these ships had been double vaccinated. As has long been feared, the virus has made the jump and is now resistant to the vaccines.

    Obviously this is an excellent time to re-open the economy and relax the lockdown restrictions. Once again, the virus has stolen a march on us. Would you also oppose compulsory vaccination for service personnel?

    1. Barbara
      July 14, 2021

      Sakara Gold, re the QE cruise ship

      They only found out because they were tested and pinged after a port stop in Limassol . There appears to be nobody who’s ill – just more (likely false) positives. If they have been ‘struck’ by anything, it’s by government guidelines. Stop fomenting panic.

    2. Narrow Shoulders
      July 14, 2021

      It has consistently been made clear that the vaccine does not infection nor spread, it merely reduces symptoms which is why many of us have questioned the efficacy of passports.

      Vaccination is supposed to prevent hospitalisation and death not positive test results.

    3. Bill B.
      July 14, 2021

      Sakara Gold – How many deaths, how many hospitalisations, how many even symptomatic? Your ‘said to be affected’ cases are likely to be more junk data, probably obtained with a PCR test that’s not fit for purpose.

      What’s it going to take, for you to realise that we have an epidemic of testing, and not much else?

      No-one has died of or with Covid in Wokingham borough (roughly equals SJR’s constituency), since April 9th, according to NHS data available online. If you wanted to, you could check for the figure in your own area, assuming you’re in this country.

  11. acorn
    July 14, 2021

    Well over one million French people made appointments for a first vaccination in the hours following President Emmanuel Macron’s televised address to the nation last night.

    Macron said he was not going to make vaccination compulsory (yet) except for those in the health and caring professions. But he made it clear that “normal life” after August 1st would be complicated, even unpleasant, for those who were not vaccinated.

    No going to the cafĂ©, eating in restaurants, no cinema, no theatres, no visiting relatives in hospital, no travelling long distance by train or bus unless you had a “health pass”. To have any fun you will have to be vaccinated; or have constant Covid tests; or have documentary proof that you have recovered from the virus.
    (John Lichfield news@thelocal.fr) It must be good to have a leader of a country who actually knows how to lead a country.

    1. Peter2
      July 14, 2021

      acorn
      “lead a country”
      Or have State enforcement imposed as many in France now feel is happening.
      I see many in France are preparing to demonstrate their opposition.

      1. hefner
        July 14, 2021

        Ah oui? 926,000 French people have contacted DoctoLib to get their first vaccine after Macron’s talk (nouvelobs.com ‘Prùs d’un million de Français ont pris rendez-vous sur Doctolib pour se faire vacciner aprùs les annonces de Macron’, 13/07/2021 14:15).

        I guess we are not reading the same sources, are yours ‘Le Journal de Mickey’?

        Really the funny bit is that there were 7,000 new cases in France on Tuesday and 
 more than 30,000 in the UK.

        1. Peter2
          July 15, 2021

          You cant help adding a bit of petty personal abuse can you heffy?
          It is reported in many media sources that there is growing anger at Macron’s state vaccine enforcement and that protests are planned.
          I’m glad a million have come forward but you miss my actual point in your speed to reply

          1. hefner
            July 15, 2021

            Journal de Mickey: petty personal abuse? It is a cornerstone for many French children, started in 1934 still going strong in 2021.

          2. Peter2
            July 15, 2021

            Subtle I would say, but I knew what your sly comment insinuated.
            Good try hef.

    2. Know-Dice
      July 14, 2021

      You mean the leader that called the AstraZeneca vaccine ‘quasi-ineffective’… He was playing a political game which slowed down and undermined the whole EU vaccination rollout…

  12. Everhopeful
    July 14, 2021

    JR, being forensic, was probably one of the few MPs who read the “key document” on this bill/act/whatever it’s called. Many did not!
    Strange how those who eagerly read runes and goat entrails to lock us in are not at all interested in any projections regarding harm/responsibility and whatever else enforced medical procedures involve.
    They have really put their necks on the line!
    ( Is that saying derived from the French Revolution I wonder?).

    1. hefner
      July 14, 2021

      ‘Put their necks on the block’ had appeared much earlier with decapitation something usual in this (and other) country. It became used in writing after Charles I’s demise.
      ‘put their heads on the line’ appears to be a 20thC americanism related to chicken slaughterhouse 


  13. Cheshire Girl
    July 14, 2021

    In my opinion, you were right to vote with the Government on the proposed reduction in Foreign Aid.

    1. JoolsB
      July 14, 2021

      The only shame is that they intend to put it back up to .7 again when possible.

      1. hefner
        July 15, 2021

        Given that according to commonslibrary.parliament.uk ‘The budget deficit: A short guide’ since 1970 the revenue has been higher than the public spending only in 1970, 1988-89 and 1998-2000 and that on average the public deficit is 3.6%, the Foreign Aid is likely to stay at 0.5% for a number of years 


  14. a-tracy
    July 14, 2021

    There are many people concerned about people not wearing masks around vulnerable people. If workers don’t have the vaccine can you insist they wear a mask at all times indoors when working with vulnerable people and that those vulnerable people also have FP2 masks available when non-vax people are in their room/home and within 2m distance from them? Non-vax people are typically the people who also are no mask people and take more risks, fair enough with yourself but not to share space with others that have fear and they could infect.

    There are many, many people that throughout the worst covid have not worn masks on the tube or on buses because of their health problems, could one carriage be set aside for these people to all sit freely with easy without the dirty looks and sly comments. Could supermarkets have a mask only evening or early morning?

    1. Alan Jutson
      July 14, 2021

      A-tracy

      Like you I would hope that all those who are in the caring profession would volunteer to protect those who they are looking after, by protecting themselves and their families from infection, and it would not require legislation.
      I do wonder how many so called Antivaxers have actually changed their minds since having lost family members due the the pandemic.

      Afraid if any of my family were in a Care home I would want the most stringent protocols to be taken by staff to try and keep them safe.

  15. No Longer Anonymous
    July 14, 2021

    Surely the market can decide.

    “Not all staff in this care home are vaccinated.”

    Let the customer choose if they want to stay there or not.

    If focused shielding was not practicable before it certainly is now that we have the vaccine. I am dismayed that messages are being promoted saying “I have organ transplants. Wear a mask and social distance for me.”

    No. Please. YOU wear an N95 mask and take care of your own social distancing. Please let the vast majority get on with their lives in a normal healthy way now. We’ve done our bit.

  16. RichardP
    July 14, 2021

    Thank you for voting against mandatory vaccination for care workers.
    The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.

  17. Barbara
    July 14, 2021

    Thank you for standing up for decency and voting against forced vaccinations. The Nuremberg code was written as it was exactly for this reason – to prevent regimes from ever again having the power to force medical experiments, like these ‘emergency approved’ vaccines (none of which have yet passed their Phase III clinical trials – the trials conclude in 2023) onto people who do not want them. Informed consent has always been the bedrock of medical ethics, and our government has just thrown that out of the window. What a shame you and the other two hundred or so did not win the day, but thank you anyway.

  18. Hat man
    July 14, 2021

    More contempt for the legislative by the executive, as some of your colleagues pointed out yesterday, Sir John. How can a self-respecting Parliament in a democracy tolerate this treatment? Ah, maybe I made a couple of assumptions there.

  19. Norman
    July 14, 2021

    Dear Sir John, thank you for your vote against making vaccination mandatory for Care workers – unsung heroes with big hearts, who work hard for little recognition or financial reward. Sadly, many MPs will have voted either way for partisan reasons (hence the vote 319 ayes/246 noes), and I suspect many of your colleagues were duped by a false narrative on vaccine efficacy and safety, as the MRHA Yellow Card and other data bears out for those willing to see it. This will not end well, certainly not for already scarce care workers who now face dismissal, should they decide to stick to their principles. There may also be legal challenges ahead – I certainly hope so!

    1. TooleyStu
      July 14, 2021

      +1 from me.

      And well done for bringing the MHRA Yellow Card system to the front.
      It is generally understood that the Yellow Card system records less than 10% of actual events.
      So, the actual figures? I hate to think.

      Most people are now so damaged they are unable to accept any new data.
      Even if it is from the Authorities themselves, and published to boot.

      Tooley Stu

    2. hefner
      July 14, 2021

      For anybody interested the MHRA report in on the gov.uk website ‘Coronavirus vaccine – Weekly summary of Yellow Card reporting’, last updated 09/07/2021.

      Please read it and make your own mind.

  20. Fedupsoutherner
    July 14, 2021

    It’s all part of the greater plan. There were admissions today that apart from getting many of us off the roads and onto our bikes (chuckle) they also want the average person to stop taking flights to go on holiday. It will make everywhere so much more pleasant for the rich who don’t give a toss about the environment and will still live their lives as they please.

    1. hefner
      July 14, 2021

      FuS, ‘admissions today’: reference please.

      Seeing the number of advertisements and promotions for flights, cruises, foreign holidays, foreign tours, safaris, 
 that I have seen/received since mid-June, I guess the plan (if there is such a plan) is going seriously astray.

      And given that some of these companies are only accepting twice-vaccinated people (with proof of vaccine status) the actual filling coefficient of these proposed holidays does not seem to be much reduced compared to pre-pandemic times, and consequently the prices are hardly more expensive than at the end of 2019.

      So, may I interest you in an 79-day cruise around South America (with three days about in the Antarctica peninsula) for a ‘cheap’ £8,399/person? You have to decide quickly, price goes to £8,999 from 16/07. For comparison, the equivalent was £7,999 in Jan’20.

      The company running this particular cruise had in a previous 15-day one I know of from friends two actually called Brexit dinners with Union Jacks and English food (with possible choice of pigs in a blanket and spotted dick for dessert) and the company (a Norwegian one registered in the UK) serves practically only UK people (mainly retirees).

      So, what is not to be liked?

  21. hefner
    July 14, 2021

    As a Public Health Specialist Registrar said on 29 March 2021 on the BMJ website ‘As it stands, legally, you don’t have to have a Covid vaccine. but ethically, clinically, epidemiologically – whichever way you slice it – I would argue you do. The ethical case is grounded in the professional duty health workers have to protect their patients: do no harm. Although everyone has the right to decide whether to take a vaccine or not, patients (often elderly or unwell, and therefore vulnerable to Covid-19) also have fundamental rights to be protected from avoidable harm. When these principles come into conflict, actions that safeguard the best interests of patients must be favoured’.

    I agree with this statement and therefore disagree completely with Sir John’s stance (not the Hippocratic Oath, more the hypocrite’s oath).

    PS: I have two sisters, a sister-in-law, and two nieces working in medical, health and nursing professions and the above is obvious for them.

    1. MiC
      July 14, 2021

      It’s interesting, that those yelling loudest that no one should have to choose between their job and their freedom to be unvaccinated are exactly those who demand that hundreds of thousands should lose their jobs for no more than having exercised their democratic right to vote Remain in an advisory referendum.

      Isn’t it?

      1. Micky Taking
        July 14, 2021

        I didn’t realise that bosses were sacking employees for voting Remain…..I agree it does seem to be a bit insensitive for those employees who have poor judgement.

        1. MiC
          July 15, 2021

          They are not, but commenters here repeatedly demand it, notably of the Civil Service.

          1. MiC
            July 15, 2021

            ..and the BBC.

          2. Peter2
            July 15, 2021

            Do they?
            Civil Service and the BBC…more made up nonsense from you MiC

      2. DOM
        July 14, 2021

        The analogy is utterly preposterous and idiotic. Seek help or maybe go and lie down in a dark room for a day or two

      3. Peter2
        July 14, 2021

        Who is actually demanding that hundreds of thousands of people who voted remain should lose their jobs MiC?
        Are you making things up as usual?

    2. Alan Jutson
      July 14, 2021

      +1

      1. formula57
        July 15, 2021

        + another 1.

        Care home residents might well use their power as customers to demand staff be vaccinated. How many care homes would wish to face suits for negligence?

  22. DaveM
    July 14, 2021

    The opposition has voted with the government a lot recently. Starting to wonder which party Johnson’s working for when it’s the red folk who are supporting him during every controversial vote.

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