I have just heard that the Scottish Parliament has voted 68 to 55 to introduce Covid passports. This represents a narrow 55 per cent / 45 per cent majority, in what was no doubt a whipped party-political vote.

So what we see here is a small majority of politicians passing laws that flagrantly discriminate against a minority.

Votes of this nature, that remove a substantial proportion of the population’s civil rights, should require a two-thirds majority, at the very minimum, in order to pass into law.

This is the most dangerous of slippery slopes at a time when our civil rights are already under major assault.

In any conceivable universe, then, this is nothing short of a democratic outrage, where the tyranny of the majority imposes outrageous totalising restrictions and the loss of formerly taken-for-granted civil liberties on to a minority.

It would be no surprise if the consent that is required for the rule of law to function effectively in an open democracy takes a significant blow to its legitimacy in the face of this gross impingement into people’s fundamental democratic rights.

Politicians will surely reap what they sow; and they need to think long and hard before repeating this outrage in England.

Richard House

Stroud