Toby Young - Virus Pants On Fire

While most of those with brain plugged in and a hole in their backside accept the current restrictions on their movement, and closure of many retail outlets, as part of combating the advance of the Coronavirus, there is the inevitable presence of those alleged sceptics, although as with Climate Sceptics and Eurosceptics, scepticism is not allowed to enter. These are people who have made their minds up: they are anti-lockdown. Full stop.

Smile Tobes, you just fouled up again

And seeing another opportunity to advance his deservedly low personal profile, the loathsome Toby Young has seen the motley procession of alleged lockdown sceptics passing by, and has decided to follow it, for he is now its leader. So it was that Lockdown Sceptics was born, rubbishing the science, the supporters, anything about lockdown, just as Climate Change deniers and Brexiteers had bashed science and economics before.

Sadly, Tobes has not managed to avoid the occasional revelation of underlying stupidity, telling his followers “Why schools need to reopen, mounting evidence COVID-19 is a nosocomial disease [a hospital acquired infection] and a brand new section entitled ‘Why Are There So Many Deaths in Care Homes?’”, while Retweeting an item about Doug Murray The K, who has claimed that China Done it, and it came from eating bats.

Still, onwards and, er, onwards, eh? At least Tobes has garnered some publicity for his foray into wacko land and associated protestations of FREEZE PEACH, with a Guardian op-ed piece telling “in the comment sections of some of the rightwing press, a new, virulent strain of Covid-19 scepticism has emerged that is the precise opposite of journalism. Rather than holding power to account, it distorts and bends reality to serve elite interests - and to warp public debate”. Precise opposite of journalism? Yep, that’s Tobes.

There is more. “Young has been one of the loudest lockdown sceptics - while being across TV and radio stations complaining about how he’s been silenced. A personal brush with coronavirus has only emboldened him”. Not sure he ever had the virus, actually. But he appreciates the attention: “Donations to Lockdown Sceptics have ticked up since the Guardian ran a hatchet job on it earlier today”. No citation, and none will be forthcoming.

And then Tobes overreached himself, sneering “Wondering what the origins of social distancing as a policy response to a pandemic are? Turns out, a 14-year-old girl came up with the idea as part of a school science experiment in 2006. No, really. That’s the ‘science’ this policy is based on”. But, as Captain Blackadder might have observed, there was only one thing wrong with this idea - it was bollocks.

Tobes swiftly deleted the Tweet. But not swiftly enough. The Tweeter known as Jim Cognito observed “Toby Young swiftly deleted this tweet, presumably after doing the tiniest amount of research and realising it was utter and complete bollocks. This is the funny little man who thinks he’s an authority on lockdown methods. God help us.”

Well, now that Tobes has shown once again what a complete and total cretin he is, we may no longer need crave divine intervention. His intellectual bankruptcy has returned with a vengeance to clean out any credibility his “lockdown sceptics” cause might have had.

You can always depend on Toby Young to put the ball in his own net. What a clown.

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