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Features

The Lockdown Files are a historian’s dream

Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp messages will be a historical goldmine

11 March 2023

9:00 AM

11 March 2023

9:00 AM

For all that the Lockdown Files, as reported in the Telegraph, sometimes read like the screenplay of The Thick of It, they will be a wonderful resource for historians. Whatever one thinks of the morality of Isabel Oakeshott’s actions vis-à-vis Matt Hancock, we now have 2.3 million words of WhatsApp messages that offer a rare psychological profile of ministers acting with emergency powers in a swiftly unfolding global crisis.

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