'What’s up with government by WhatsApp?', asks Mark Dolan

What’s up with government by WhatsApp? Well, because the stunning lockdown files of released messages from the then Health Secretary Matt Hancock demonstrates what we feared all along – that this government was trapped in a terrifying and undemocratic groupthink, in which headlines, “being seen to act”, and avoiding battles with political rivals, is what shaped the pandemic response.

Covid measures – masks, lockdowns, school closures, those pathetic, plastic screens in shops and arrows in supermarkets, which I consider nothing more than Covid theatre, were nothing to do with public health. It was politics.

Masks are the perfect example, they covered our faces, to protect their arses. No overwhelming, compelling evidence that these environmentally damaging and socially harmful devices, which are now rotting in landfill and filling our oceans, would make a difference to stop the spread.

“let's be seen to do something mode”, the outgoing Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, chose to mask kids in school – some as young as 11 – sat in the classroom all day long their faces covered.

According to these messages, the then Prime Minister, Boris Johnson's response was that we’d better mask kids in England too, to avoid a battle with Sturgeon.

Did they even think for a second what this unscientific measure would have on kids, ion their mental health and well-being, and their education.? As well as comparing countries that had mask mandates and not, the most recent Cochrane review – the most authoritative study to date - suggests masks did nothing. But without compelling data backing them up, all of these measures rolled on. This pathetic soap opera was played out, as our lives, our economy and our society was egregiously damaged.

It's heroic journalism from the Telegraph newspaper and sheer courage from their reporter, Isabel Oakeshott, who has brought opprobrium on herself for breaking her silence and sharing these messages. Astonishingly, rather than receiving praise from fellow journalists, she was harangued this week by the likes of the Today programme on the BBC – there’s a surprise - as they grilled her about dropping these messages.

So why are these establishment media figures so critical of her decision to share all of this? Could it be because they don't want the public to know the truth? Given the fact that it was establishment media outfits like the Beeb, Sky, ITV and others, who peddled the narrative that we had to lock down to save lives and who piled pressure on politicians to roll out these measures. And it was these establishment media figures, many big stars on TV and radio, who belittled, attacked, and gaslit figures from the world of science, politics and members of the public, who looked at the pandemic response – masking people, closing schools, and shutting the economy down on and off for 2 1/2 years - and said it was madness.

We were all granny killers. And right-wing, apparently. How does that work? Well here we are with a wrecked economy – a national debt of over £2 trillion, with half a trillion having borrowed to pay healthy people to stay at home and improve their banana bread recipe. With diminished kids and a sadder, angrier, poorer, sicker and more divided society. Don’t forget, part of these Covid measures, which, in my view were about making headlines, saw the NHS effectively go on strike, focusing on the elimination of this virus, at the expense of everything else. The legacy? A waiting list of over 7 million people. But it’s about your health. And these WhatsApp messages demonstrate the cavalier and unaccountable manner, in which our public figures, drunk on power, rolled the dice in such a dangerous way. On one occasion, a top adviser joked with Matt Hancock about locking up visitors to the UK in hotel quarantine. Lol.

Let's be clear, all of these measures were a gamble, they were a punt. The danger was oversold, the public were treated like children and the reaction was truly catastrophic. I've been worried about this potential stitch-up of a public enquiry, which may fall into the intellectual trap of asking why we didn't lock down faster and harder. Luckily, with the release of these WhatsApp messages, this enquiry will be forced to take into account the non-evidence-based approach that underpinned all of these measures. I believe history will show that we had too many of these measures, not too few. Leaving the rest of us to pick up the pieces from this disastrous, failed experiment, inspired don’t forget, by the communist party of china. The Lockdown files reveal our worst fears – none of it was science-based; it was all politics. And whether it was parties at number 10 or hilarious banter on WhatsApp, they were laughing at us all along. Lockdowns; were a cockup. And now we have it in black and white. The message from these messages is clear. Never again.

What do YOU think? Now the government will argue that without the Covid measures – lockdowns, face coverings, and other interventions - many lives would've been lost, and they would argue that these measures we carried out by countries across the world, and that ensuring the NHS didn't become overwhelmed, was their priority, something they would argue these measures achieved. That's not my view, but what's yours – Mark@GBNews.uk