I’ve written a piece for the Spectator’s Coffee House blog about the ‘Lockdown Files’ – the 100,000+ WhatsApp messages on Matt Hancock’s phone that Isabel Oakeshott has leaked to the Telegraph. They demonstrate, beyond reasonable doubt, that Hancock wasn’t following some diabolical plan cooked up in Davos, just lurching from pillar to post trying to save his political skin, trying to stick to the advice from the Government’s scientific advisors where possible, but seemingly ignoring it when it was politically inconvenient (although Hancock denies that charge).
To be fair to Hancock, the medical advice often changed from one moment to the next and wasn’t always consistent, as these messages reveal. The overall impression left by the ‘lockdown files’ is that the government wasn’t ‘following the science’, as Hancock and others claimed – not because the scientific advice was clear and they were ignoring it, but because there was no such thing as ‘the science’. We were in uncharted waters and no one really had a clue what to do, including the Government’s scientific advisors.
What’s unforgivable is that the Government imposed policies it knew would cause widespread suffering, such as banning people from visiting their dying relatives in hospitals and care homes, without really knowing whether they would save lives. As Hancock’s WhatsApp messages make clear, such measures were often imposed because the government wanted to be seen to be doing something – anything – rather than admit the truth, which is that it was completely out of its depth.
I then go on to summarise the most scandalous revelations in the ‘Lockdown Files’, before concluding by expressing gratitude to the Telegraph and Isabel Oakeshott for making the WhatsApp messages Public:
Not only are they clearly in the public interest, but the people who lost loved ones during the pandemic – particularly in care homes – should not be forced to wait until the official inquiry concludes before discovering what went on behind the scenes when the pandemic struck and, more importantly, whether mistakes were made. In addition, the revelations may help us prepare better for the next pandemic, which could strike before the inquiry makes its recommendations.
I’m also thankful for another reason, namely the ongoing debate I’ve been having with James Delingpole and others about whether the pandemic and the response to it, including the development and roll out of the mRNA vaccines, were all part of a sinister plot to enrich a cabal of billionaires and enable them and their political allies, such as Klaus Schwab, to railroad through their globalist agenda. I’ve always maintained that it wasn’t; that it was cock-up not conspiracy and these WhatsApp messages confirm that analysis. There was no ‘plandemic’. It was just the usual political clown show.
Worth reading in full.
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