So Richard, we're going to go through some of the questions that listeners have sent in in response to our last conversation on the lockdown skeptic literature, and in particular Toby Green's book, The COVID Consensus.

But before we do, I thought it might be good to touch upon the release by Conservative journalist Isabel Oakeshott of this trove of WhatsApp messages, a former health secretary Matt Hancock, dating from the height of the

pandemic. The material consists of more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages sent between Hancock

and various other ministers and officials, and was obtained by Oakhshott from Hancock when she

was ghostwriting his book, The Pandemic Diaries, The Inside Story of Britain's Battle Against COVID.

Amongst other revelations, the messages include an exchange from April 2020, in which Hancock

responds to recommendations from the chief medical officer, Chris Witty, that anyone going

into a care home should be tested for COVID. Hancock told an aide that this approach muddied the waters

and instead opted to test only those coming from hospital, all the while publicly claiming

to have thrown this protective ring around care homes. Now, Isabel Oakeshaw is firmly in the

lockdown skeptic camp and she clearly regards the leaks as vindication of her position,

and many people including some of the left lockdown skeptics we've discussed, such as Thomas

Fatsy, also see the leaks as buttressing their arguments. For instance, in an article for

unheard on these leaks, Fatsy writes, The Story exemplifies everything that was wrong in the

all-of-society lockdown approach.

We were told that it was a test of solidarity, that it was the only way to save lives and

protect the most vulnerable. As it turns out, it was the exact opposite of that. While the

government was busy keeping healthy people from leaving their homes and forcing them to get

tested on a regular basis, it was all but abandoning those

it should have protected, the elderly. And this despite the government knowing full well that

COVID was almost exclusively a serious threat for elderly people and those with underlying health

conditions. In other words, a huge number of COVID deaths, particularly in the first wave,

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