Vaccine passport plan for nightclubs in England: ‘a knife through the heart of the night-time economy’

Donald MacLeod

Glasgow club entrepreneur and Director of Hold Fast Entertainment Donald MacLeod says that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans to make Covid vaccine passports mandatory for nightclubs in England are “a hammer blow for the industry and a knife through the heart of the night-time economy.”

Full vaccination will be a condition of entry to nightclubs and other venues with large crowds from September.

Donald told DRAM, “I don’t think its a necessary measure. We were headed the right way with vaccinations and the UK government is using clubs as political football. I just hope the Scottish government doesn’t follow suit (they probably won’t for at least three weeks!)

“I fully support all the public health measures to get the vaccines rolled out but we are on the .edge of the abyss of losing freedoms and this is yet another in a catalogue of worrying developments for the trade. Both governments are tinkering with protections and bringing in measures that are only breaking the back of business.

“There’ll be big problems in England if kids rebel against it – plus Scotland doesn’t have infrastructure for it. There’ll be beer stained photocopies of passports that will  leave the entire system open for forgery.”

The announcement came on the day nightclubs were allowed to reopen after almost 18 months of closure when Boris Johnson told a press conference, “I don’t want to have to close nightclubs again as they have elsewhere. But it does mean nightclubs need to do the socially responsible thing.

“As we said last week, we do reserve the right to mandate certification at any point if it’s necessary to reduce transmission.”