The vaccine passports debate is gathering momentum, and like all matters corona, it is going to go pear-shaped at a rate of knots.

The underlying principles are nothing new. For many ailments, such as meningitis, polio and yellow fever, documents confirming vaccination are mandatory for travel.

Of course, in terms of lethality, these are significantly more nefarious than Kung Flu, but the die is already cast in the international psyche. Nobody has the plums to countenance a scintilla of further disruption as they sift through the ashes of their razed economies for whatever uncharred spoils can be salvaged.

And that renders it to be a question of national security and a matter for individual governments, who will base their decision on the basis of what their respective systems can bear. That should seem reasonable even to the swivel-eyed loons on both wings of the bonkers spectrum.

Naturally, a new COVID-related system would always be received favourably in UK Government circles because it represents a crack of light for a crock of gold. Another big-bonce bonanza for the gang.

And for avoidance of doubt, the contract for the Covid vaccine passport prototype was issued by the UK government in November. It was handed out without there having been the merest sniff of a tender, and its confirmation was published once the work had all been completed.

Those boots are still being filled.

The question of vaccine passports is however not the truly contentious issue. People will either have them and travel, or they will make other plans. It will not impinge too aggressively on the freedoms of everyday life.

The sticky wicket will be that of domestic vaccine certificates and how their implementation will have people over a freedom and rights barrel. It might be one thing for a pub or restaurant to refuse entry to an unjabbed punter, but ditching people from their jobs will brutally slice off non-conformists at the knees.

And that arguably crosses the line between public protection and coercion, needling not just arms but the freedoms that underpin democracy.

Tantalisingly, the elephants in the room might well turn out to be the swathes of NHS workers who are still holding out against the needle. Many are being ‘called into rooms’ to explain their reluctance to be subjected to experimental medication and ultimately controlled by Bill Gates’ nanotech. Sorry, receive the vaccination. That one is going to break bad big time and will grow arms and legs at a canter if bosses do deign to turn up the heat.

Quite how comfortably mass sackings would sit with ‘protecting our NHS’ and our dubious history of unfettered, virtue-signalling claps is still to be established.

Nurse! Popcorn, please.