Toby Neal on Hancock: In the public interest or mere tittle-tattle?
GDPR, DPA... OMG! What a massive data breach. Confidential information has been shared with all and sundry.
If it weren't for the fact that the victim is author, TV personality, and national hate figure Matt Hancock, politicians would be up in arms and calling for a public inquiry.
And poor Isabel Oakeshott, having to trawl through over 100,000 sensitive WhatsApp messages to try to grub up some stories which meet the bar of being justified in the public interest, rather than mere tittle-tattle.
Allegedly the messages shed new light on the Government's response and thinking in relation to the Covid pandemic, but it's difficult to see how such snapshots can truly be seen in context, which means in turn that they cannot fairly be used to make judgments about judgments.
Meanwhile the Covid public inquiry has so far cost £85 million and counting, according to Sir Keir Starmer.
If the professionals are waiting for the inquiry to report on the "lessons that must be learnt," then gawd help us, because they should have learned all the important lessons already and be putting them into practice.
