THE step back from vaccination passports may be welcomed by those who see them as limiting our freedom or who complain that they would be discriminatory.

I suggest, however, that any problem lies with how such a system is applied rather than being fundamental to passports (leaving aside the point that any document we carry like an ID card seems obsolete when there could be remote access to multiple recent images of a person together with information on their status).

If I wish to exclude from my home, say, unvaccinated people then that seems to me legitimate as an exercise of my freedom and as a form of discrimination.

Similarly for any premises, according to the wishes of the proprietor. A nightclub owner is surely entitled to exclude the unvaccinated no less than those wearing trainers. This freedom is essential to maintaining a range of different environments.

There will be some locations where the decision on access properly lies with local government and others (including entry to the country) where this role belongs to central government.

It is when government mandates the use of passports where it is in no sense the proprietor that we may need to look to the defence of our liberties.

I would have hoped that some of those protesting against passports would instead stand up for our freedom to discriminate.

John Riseley, Harrogate.

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