Transcripts from the Covid inquiry show that groups were used to lob around random, mad ideas
‘WhatsApp’s prominence in Westminster is back in the news, thanks to the Covid inquiry and the litany of foul messages sent by Dominic Cummings about his colleagues’ ? If you’re in America, the answer is you still probably haven’t. But in Britain, you likely joined years ago because it was easy and fast. Or because your friends and family gravitated towards it, and no one wants to be left out of the social network du jour.
Ultimately, politicos adore WhatsApp for the same reason as the rest of the nation: it’s the cheapest way to communicate rapidly. When Boris Johnson became prime minister in the summer of 2019, the dump of inquiry evidence showed that he made or joined a plethora of groups to run the country — some for communications, others for co-ordination, some for debate and idle gossip. The social network suitedAll these trends were exaggerated when Covid hit.
Some may scoff at the traditional schemes for policy-making: people sitting around big tables, debating detailed submissions, pondering all the possible options. In a stranger era, mandarins built a white room in the Treasury adorned with wall-to-wall whiteboards for thinking the unthinkable. But the very nature of WhatsApp has changed how we think about policy. It was a social media platform created for the here and now. It favours sharp exchanges, witty remarks, memes and videos.
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