Hancock falls into the social media trap

It’s day 652 of Matt Hancock’s Covid-era Whatsapp messages being published in their entirety and we appear to be winding down. Long gone are the insights into how a pandemic nation was governed, we’re past the racy exchanges with Gina Coladangelo (a series of intriguing emojis) and we’ve rattled through a lads group chat in which poor Prof Chris Whitty got ridiculed on a daily basis. There is a debate over whether ghost writer and journalist Isabel Oakeshott should have leaked 100,000 messages to The Telegraph. Is Hancock a source? Very much so. But while the first rule of journalism is never to reveal your sources he did that quite well himself, by publishing an account of his time as health secretary. Has Oakeshott ‘stabbed Hancock in the back’? Of course, but then the same could be said of any whistleblower. There is a clear public interest in publishing these messages, some of which reveal breathtaking incompetence. A more pressing question is why Hancock thought handing over his entire message history was a good idea. If I were any of George Osborne, Gavin Williamson or Michael Gove, I’d be glaring into my expensive cocktail. It’s an easy riddle to solve and as with most of today’s problems the solution can be found online. Tiktok, Twitter, Instagram. Social media is Hancock’s Kingdom, or so he thinks. We’re kidding ourselves if we think this level of delusion is unique to the honourable member for West Suffolk. It’s endemic in politics and many other fields, too.

What makes Hancock one of a kind is just how wrong he often is about what will look good. I’m A Celeb? A Tiktok channel? Failing to vaccinate care home residents?

As is so often the case in today’s politics, an obsession with optics clouds judgment and leads to completely bonkers decisions. It’s no longer about what’s best for the country but about what (or who) looks best.

‘We’re kidding ourselves if we think this level of delusion is unique to the honourable member for West Suffolk. It’s endemic in politics and other fields...’