The Week Unwrapped: Lost citizenship, wasted jabs and alarming doorbells
Are some British citizens more equal than others? Why are governments throwing away Covid vaccines? And will even our doorbells turn against us?
Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters.
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In this week’s episode, we discuss:
Citizenship at risk
This week the Commons passed an amendment to the Nationality and Borders Bill, which changes the law to allow the government to strip British citizenship without notice from dual citizens or anyone who is eligible for citizenship of another country, if they pose a threat to UK national security. Opponents of the change say this has extended the two-tier system of citizenship created in 2006, which means that naturalised citizens and their children are often less secure in their rights than the mostly white Britons whose parents were born in the UK.
Wasted vaccines
The Nigerian government confirmed this week that it is preparing to destroy almost a million doses of Covid vaccine, which was about to pass its expiry date – even though it has so far vaccinated only about 2% of its population. The waste has exposed numerous problems in the international effort to vaccinate the populations of poorer countries, ranging from the short shelf-life of some donated jabs to poor delivery infrastructure in some recipient countries – and low demand in countries where Covid has yet to cause significant fatalities.
Smart doorbells
Amazon, which owns the smart doorbell brand Ring, has been granted a patent for a device that remembers regular callers and sends residents an alert when a stranger approaches their door. Although the company says it has no current plans to sell such a model, it has sparked debate about the balance between convenience, security and privacy in smart camera technology, particularly since Ring is known to have a close relationship with several UK and US police forces.
