People won’t forget how lockdown rules made them feel like criminals

SIR – An unfortunate side effect of the publication of Matt Hancock’s Whatsapp messages in your Lockdown Files (report, March 3) is being reminded of the ridiculous measures imposed on the British population.

I recall a sunny day in Camden where people sitting “socially distanced” by the canal were eating their takeaway food from the market venues, which had been permitted to reopen. A phalanx of police officers proceeded along the towpath ordering those enjoying some brief fresh air and sunshine to return home or face arrest.

These injustices must never be allowed to happen again.

Nicholas Higgs London W1

SIR – At last it is emerging how Covid turned the Government – and many of the rest of us – into lemmings.

Sadly, I expect some of the culprits will end up in the Lords.

William Blake Clun, Shropshire

SIR – I am deeply grateful to you for publishing The Lockdown Files.

It is heartening to see that at least one aspect of our democracy is still functioning properly and the Government is being held to account by a free press. Without this investigation, the ongoing and frustratingly slow Covid inquiry would be more likely to be a whitewash.

I would still like to know how it was that ministers thought it appropriate to subject the population to a sustained campaign of emotional manipulation by psy-ops and then seek direction from a continually terrified public to make politically expedient, career-serving decisions, thereby definitely not “following the science”.

I want to see communications around these decisions regarding misuse of behavioural science, and the decision to propagate the lie that everyone was equally at risk from the virus (something known not to be true before the first lockdown). It seems to me that these two issues were fundamental to the ability of the Government to subject the nation to arbitrary, unevidenced, catastrophically harmful – and ultimately mostly pointless – interventions for over two years.

These ministers and unelected advisers must be held to account for their appalling actions.

Dr Zenobia Storah Altrincham, Cheshire

SIR – I agree with Georgina Stanger (Letters, March 3) that, had we followed Boris Johnson’s instincts, much of the useless lockdown regime might have been avoided.

Sadly, instincts are all Mr Johnson has. He may have a talent for expressing them in speech and writing, but he was unsuited to carrying out a role of critical national importance where attention to detail is vital.

Michael Oak Stirling

SIR – The messages revealed by The Telegraph this week demonstrate the chaos and duplicity at the heart of the Government.

The ugly exchange about teachers between Matt Hancock and Sir Gavin Williamson does not reflect the relationship I had with the then education secretary. How can trust develop when the secret contempt for teachers and the teaching profession is laid bare like this?

We must not forget that Covid was rampant in schools, and the whole school community was managing a life-threatening risk in the most difficult of circumstances. School leaders, teachers and all school staff felt their responsibility keenly. Apparently, we were taking the whole thing a lot more seriously than many in the Government.

I only hope that Gillian Keegan, the current Education Secretary, has a better understanding of just how hard teachers and school leaders work. Paul Whiteman

General secretary, NAHT, the school leaders’ union London SW1

SIR – First our children’s education suffered when we closed our schools because of Covid. This has been followed by teachers’ strike action, which is closing schools again.

Our education system has provided no consistency for children over the past three years. What happened to putting them first?

Nigel Lines Ferndown, Dorset

SIR – Matt Hancock has been scorned, vilified and derided for his actions during an unprecedented event. We are too ready to crucify this man: nobody was prepared for the pandemic, and I would suggest that most people did their best.

Gary Read Glynrhedynog, Glamorgan

SIR – I am saddened by our culture of blame. Yes, choices were made during the pandemic that transpired not to have been the right ones. But little was known about Covid-19 at the time, people were dying in large numbers and crisis conditions prevailed.

I for one would not have relished being one of the people who had to make decisions.

Anyone proved guilty of acting negligently or with malign intent should of course be punished, but otherwise we would do better to learn the lessons, try to forgive and forget, and move on.

Elizabeth Evans Ashbourne, Derbyshire

SIR – We would be well advised to remember the appalling part that the Labour Party, under the leadership of Sir Keir Starmer, played in aiding and abetting the whole sorry mess that was lockdown.

The duty of the Opposition is to oppose. This is an important part of our democracy. Unless ministers are forced to defend their plans, we end up with very poor governance.

However rotten this Tory Government has been, we must not forget that it was given support by an equally awful Labour Party, under the direction of Sir Keir.

Anthony Singlehurst London SE11

SIR – Roger Cousins’s assertion (Letters, March 2) that our politicians are unqualified to do their jobs must not go unchallenged.

Members of Parliament are elected by us to be our representatives, not to be experts. Besides, I wouldn’t want a member of the British Medical Association as health minister – or a member of the RMT as transport minister.

Michael Keene

Winchester, Hampshire