THERE was an Edinburgh nightclub I was particularly fond of at one time. Its great selling points were that no one cared what you were wearing, it was cheap to get in and it had a diamond playlist, delivering an endless procession of bangers night after night.

It wasn’t a place for hipsters or purists, but a den of abandon. On a Thursday night, you’d find the place heaving with sweaty office workers in their shirt sleeves, things having gone a bit astray after the post-work drink, their suit jackets and ties shoved into their rucksacks under some table on the sticky floor. Goths and emos – how did they end up there? – would cast off their black shrouds and wiggle their way into the throng. From under the curtains of ebony hair, you’d sometimes catch an actual smile.

The cheesy pop, disco and electronica kept on coming. Some self-loving Adonis would inevitably peel off his shirt when Britney came on, to jeers from the good-natured crowd, but no one ever got too lairy. You had to watch your drink for the plink of condensation dripping into it from the slick ceiling, but we didn’t worry too much about that, not then.

Now of course, it’s a bit different.

Togetherness is what makes nightclubs such joyous places, but it’s also what makes them risky during a pandemic. It’s why they’ve had to stay closed for most of the past 18 months.

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People now have to wear masks when they’re not dancing, drinking or dining. But understandably there are public health anxieties about inebriated people pogo-ing together in confined spaces, spaces that it’s often almost impossible to ventilate properly.

And so we say hello to vaccine passports. Proof of being double vaxxed, they’ll be required in nightclubs, adult entertainment venues, unseated indoor events with crowds of more than 500, unseated outdoor events with more than 4,000, and any event at all with more than 10,000 people. Football matches, concerts and music festivals will all be affected.

The reasoning behind the move is obvious. Music festivals and nightclubs are most popular with young people, among whom vaccine uptake has plateaued. In recent days, a huge proportion of new cases have been in young adults.

The alarming ongoing rise in Covid cases has led to more hospital admissions and put the NHS under more pressure when we haven’t even reached autumn, never mind winter.

But not everyone considers that a good enough reason for vaccine certificates. They are tantamount to introducing “medical ID cards”, says the Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton, who particularly dislikes the idea of people having to share their health data on nightclub doors. He brands it “an illiberal step and a dangerous precedent”.

Really, though? Personally, I’m not getting that vibe. It’s not a loveable policy, certainly. It’s a drag. But what’s the alternative if not this? Ending everyone’s freedom to go to clubs by shutting them altogether? Officials have tried to come up with the least worst solution, a way of cutting transmission rates and incentivising vaccination while avoiding the closure of venues that have only just reopened.

I could be wrong, and will obviously be embarrassed if in six months there are searchlights strafing the Saturday night queues on the Cowgate while terrifying civil servants stalk up and down, but fearing a slow slide towards totalitarianism as a result of this measure feels a bit premature.

It’s very limited for a start, only affecting a handful of leisure settings. Public services and situations where people have no choice about being there – on a bus, for example – will be exempt. There will be exemptions too for those who can’t be vaccinated for medical reasons and for children.

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As a dyke holding back the tide of Covid it’s a bit holey, for sure. Restaurants and pubs aren’t covered – even large ones – and there will likely be some people attending events who are infected in spite of being twice-jagged. There are also big questions about how practical it is to implement.

Even so, it’s surely better to do something targeted rather than nothing at all.

That’s not to say that MSPs shouldn’t keep ministers on a tight leash. Vaccine passports won’t happen without parliamentary approval and it’s the job of MSPs to impose safeguards. Mr Cole-Hamilton points out that there is no time limit on the proposals and they leave the door open to expansion. Ministers must come clean: how long will the measure be in place? Will it be closely monitored and the scheme withdrawn if it fails to have an impact? In what circumstances would it be extended, for example to pubs and restaurants?

Liberals (and I don’t just mean those in the Lib Dems) have an allergy to banning things and huge suspicion about the state acquiring an over-mighty role in people’s lives. So they should.

But being liberal has never been about protecting everyone’s right to do as they please all the time, since self-evidently it pleases some people to do things that harm others. Being liberal is about having the freedom to live your life as you please, and protecting others’ right to do the same, provided it doesn’t do damage. And in a pandemic, where each one of us can be a link in the chain of transmission, getting the balance right as individuals between our freedoms and our responsibilities is critical.

Patrick Harvie, the Greens’ co-leader and a junior minister, said in July he was concerned vaccine passports would discriminate against those not yet vaccinated. He’s now bound by collective cabinet responsibility. But is the point valid? Shouldn’t someone in a free society be able to make a legal decision not be get vaccinated – no matter how unpopular that decision may be – without fear of discrimination?

In principle, yes. But in a pandemic you can’t just talk about freedoms without responsibilities. If everyone had refused the vaccine when they could safely have had it, then the vaccine programme would have failed and tens of thousands more people would be dead. People have a choice and by the time the scheme is introduced, all adults should have been offered both doses.

No one wants vaccine passports. But if they stem transmission, they’ll help sustain our other recently acquired freedoms. They’re worth a shot.

Our columns are a platform for writers to express their opinions. They do not necessarily represent the views of The Herald.