Toby Young roasted after point about lockdowns and Johnson massively backfires

Toby Young has been duly roasted for his latest column titled: “At last, Boris has placed his trust in the common sense of the British people, not the Cassandras in lab coats,” and he isn’t exactly making the point he thinks he’s making...

In the Mail+ article published on December 21, the General Secretary of the Free Speech Union praised Johnson for ignoring scientists aka the “Cassandras in lab coats” which is a reference to Greek mythology a Trojan priestess of Apollo.

But it seems the commentator may have gotten his mythological knowledge mixed up as Cassandra was actually cursed to utter true prophecies, but never to be believed.

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So Young is basically saying he’s glad Johnson is not listening to the scientists even though he described them as people who can truly predict the future - and ironically no one believes them.

Yeah, that makes perfect sense...

Of course, it didn’t take long before people on Twitter were happy to highlight this inconsistency to Young - and rip into him for it.

However, it’s not the first time the commentator has made a Covid-related mistake either after Young admitted at the beginning of the year that he got it “wrong” downplaying the second wave during an interview with Emily Maitlis on Newsnight.

Young had previously stated how the second spike of the virus “refused to materialise” and had “all but disappeared.”

(Given the fact we’re now near Christmas with the Omicron variant spreading across the country, and the prime minister considering what restrictions to put in place in order to curb transmissions - it most certainly has not disappeared).

“It’s not denying Covid per se, but it seems to be ignoring it’s actually amongst us,” Maitlis said, and then asked Young: “Is there not a moment of contrition from you?”

He replied: “Hands up I got that wrong, Emily – but let’s not forget that was during the summer when social distancing measures, curfews were doing enormous damage to the hospitality industry.”

Young added: “The lockdown sceptics’ case is that the lockdowns, not just here but across the world, have caused more harm than they have prevented.”

With Christmas around the corner, perhaps someone should gift Young with a Greek mythology book along with a medical science book on how viruses work as a present.