Barred from Wembley

[Grassbank]

How sad that the Wembley Stadium web site boasts that their Covid protocol is stricter than current Government requirements. They impose regular spot checks which are more frequent in certain parts of the stadium and restrict you to a time slot when you will be allowed access.

We had tickets for the ladies FA Cup Final today. Last night, my wife and I tried to produce temporary Covid passes from the NHS App. Although we have used this previously, it did not work. The help desk is yet to respond to our issue. We therefore had to choose whether to incur the time and cost of travelling to Wembley in the hope of avoiding spot checks to gain access. The failure of technology put us in the position of somebody having done something wrong, even though we are both vaccinated.

To say that I am angry is an understatement. I will now not book tickets for any event where I have to prove my vaccine status to attend and I will refuse to use a vaccine passport as I now see how divisive they are, especially when access to them may be denied by a technical failure.

I feel sorry for venues that have to enforce this dreadful rule, although I have no sympathy for the Wembley attitude of actively seeking to bar access to customers who have already paid for their tickets in advance. I hope that venues will realise that they need to challenge the Government and refuse to enforce these draconian rules, or they will alienate their customers and face the economic consequences.

[DA Mikey]

That’s awful. COVID has turned the world mildly insane and yours is yet another story of how most people have simply lost touch with common sense and taking basic measures to keep themselves and each other safe. My Dad died last year, but no one was allowed to his funeral because covid was more important.
I suppose the morons at the Euro 2020 final will not have helped your situation, but the fact remains that you have followed all the ridiculous protocols and jumped through all the pointless hoops, all of which are touted as the ‘be all and end all’ to this farcical situation, yet next month there will be a completely new saviour in town and everything you knew before will be wrong.

Hard lines Grassbank.

[Spike]

This sort of thing is even more annoying when you see how the people dictating these sort of rules have consistently demonstrated that they think they don't apply to them personally. You should have told them you were meeting up with Downing Street staff inside the stadium, for a Christmas beano.

[Grassbank]

Whilst I deleted the App from my phone, my wife was determined to find out why the App did not work, when we had both used it previously (me for a Spurs match and her for a recent trip to Wales). She has now been advised that the security around the App has been tightened. Basically, they are trying to discourage you from using a temporary pass. You now need to be able to verify the telephone number that is on your record at your local GP. It is so long since I have seen a GP that I am not even sure if I owned a mobile phone at the time. If I want to use the App again, which I will not, I would have to contact my GP and ask what telephone number they have on record for me.

With the developments at Downing Street this evening, I will now be banned from any premier league ground and large indoor venues until an element of sanity is restored. Whilst the lack of long term data on the vaccines concerns me, I still believe that my health is better served by being vaccinated. However, I strongly disagree with the idea of a vaccine passport and now refuse to use one, even though I will be penalised for this approach. It could be a long winter.