There's no better example of how polarised and dogged public political support has become over the past few years than how people react to things in this thread. When I went to my first gig in two years last week I had to use my vaccine passport to get in and I was told to wear a mask the whole time I was inside. It seemed like much of the audience did although I physically couldn't - I would have been whiteying everywhere if I hadn't.
I don't think masks make any meaningful difference to anything. I think the contexts in which we're supposed to wear them are contradictory and self-defeating. The idea of having to wear them in a crowded indoor space for a few hours at a time is ludicrous to me. If someone thinks they make a difference and wants to wear one, fine. Go ahead.
I don't think vaccine passports are an appropriate measure for a democratic country to introduce. Aside from the issues with eligibility when the scheme was launched for people who hadn't had two vaccines, aside from them requiring various other objects to acquire one, aside from the increasingly large age ranges being prompted for a third vaccination and the inherent point that apparently within three months my passport is going to show that I'm not really protected against anything, the very notion of them is insidious. Why should we willingly have to show state-issued papers to go anywhere? How easy is it for the state to track the movements and habits of the entire adult population? I can use it, and I will, but as I've posted before I'm not going to vote again for any party/individual responsible for their existence.
And yet, it's impossible to try and put this point across. Everyone on this thread who complains about restrictions and excessive caution is extremely pro-vaccine. They're extremely eager to be as free from Covid as they can be, and for everyone else to be too. They think there is a level of caution which goes beyond that and becomes restrictive, and are frustrated there isn't any suggestion of it ever mentioned by... anyone, as far as I can tell. The press certainly doesn't and if they're not holding the politicians to account then nobody is.
The problem comes with trying to separate that. Nobody can. I've said what I think about vaccine passports. Yet when I went to that gig there were some gimps outside with a big banner about vaccine passports on it. I didn't look at them for long but I saw "Bill Gates" on it and knew immediately that they weren't worth interacting with. Yet, to the Welshbairns and the moustaches of this world, I'm a petulant child and a complete moron because everyone who doesn't think the way they do is wrong.
The worst part about the sanctimonious p***ks on this thread who take great delight in laughing at people who've done all they can and get made to do more isn't that the polls suggest they exist in some sort of majority approval of things the Scottish government does, it's that they're completely unable to see the shite they post in here is exactly what they accuse the people they disagree with of doing.