The shameful attacks on the Covid inquiry prove it: the right is lost in anti-science delusion | Polly Toynbee

"That number will stay fixed for ever in public memory: 23,000 people died because Boris Johnson resisted locking the country down in time. As Covid swept in, and with horrific images of Italian temporary morgues in tents, he went on holiday and took no calls. With the NHS bracing to be overwhelmed by the virus, he rode his new motorbike, walked his dog and hosted friends at Chevening."

"Nothing is surprising about that: he was ejected from Downing Street and later stepped down as an MP largely for partying and lying to parliament about it. Everyone knew he was a self-aggrandising fantasist with a toxic and chaotic culture around him. But this is not just about one narcissistic politician. It's about his entire rightwing coterie of libertarians and their lethally dominant creed in the UK media."

"They have a long history of rejecting things that save lives seatbelts, speed limits, smoking restrictions, sugar taxes, vaccination, benefits, sewers, clean air, the NHS itself and, of course, stopping climate breakdown. Recall that during the 1980s and 1990s, the Sunday Times under the editorship of Andrew Neil promoted the strangest gay plague theory, publishing pieces suggesting that Aids wasn't caused by HIV, and that it was almost impossible for heterosexual people to contract it."

"Lockdowns are the quintessence of everything rightwing science-sceptics abhor: what misfortune that a tribe least equipped to cope was in power during the pandemic. In the circumstances, the interventions from those in charge were too little, too late. Hard to imagine, but Covid in the UK could have been even more deadly, had unavoidable facts about the pandemic not eventually overwhelmed their fact-free ideologies."

23,000 people died because Boris Johnson resisted locking the country down in time. As Covid swept in and Italian temporary morgues appeared, he went on holiday, took no calls, rode his new motorbike, walked his dog and hosted friends at Chevening while the NHS braced to be overwhelmed. He was ejected from Downing Street and later stepped down as an MP largely for partying and lying to parliament. A broader rightwing libertarian media culture repeatedly rejects life-saving measures — seatbelts, speed limits, smoking restrictions, taxes, vaccination and public-health protections — which delayed effective pandemic interventions.

Read at www.theguardian.com