LOOKING BACK
Matt Hancock, who has resigned as Health Secretary after video footage emerged of him kissing an aide in his ministerial office in a breach of coronavirus restrictions
From the Darlington & Stockton Times of July 2, 1921 PUBLIC opprobrium for Matt Hancock and his buttock-clinching antics has forced the former Health Secretary out of office, but he is lucky to be caught philandering in such understanding times. If he had transgressed 150 years ago, he would have had the Stang ridden against him. Local people would have gathered outside his door at night and, well lubricated, they would have made a racket, banging on pots and pans, shouting rude poems, letting off fireworks and perhaps burning an effigy of him. It was all designed to publicly humiliate him – and to give other residents an excuse to have a drunken riot.