Lockdowns were never very popular. There was a reasonable level of discontent from the start, and plenty of people that resented having to modify their behaviou

Lockdowns were never very popular. There was a reasonable level of discontent from the start, and plenty of people that resented having to modify their behaviour for the sake of (his words) "a few hundred thousand mostly elderly people". In my opinion he gambled on this being a silent majority. It paid off a little, and he does seem to have some followers such as yourself. As I say I'm grateful that's the extent of it. If all he was doing was challenging the government based on known facts, I would have much less of an issue. But he went much further than that; he managed to get himself published in the mainstream media saying shit like "the country is well on its way to herd immunity" (March 2020), "the virus is expected to vanish in London by the end of next month" (May 2020), and "people will have a natural immunity because they’ve already successfully fought off other coronaviruses, such as the common cold" (July 2020). At best, these were based on wishful and imaginitive interpretations of data. At worst, they were simply made up to bolster his agenda, which is why the article containing that last quote had to be retracted. Either way they were unfounded, and fueled and exploited a growing atmosphere of distrust and division. And let's not pretend that there was no one else out there looking directly at the science and communicating it to the public. There were websites like Science-Based Medicine to YoutTubers like John Campbell doing a decent job of it (at least for the first year or so). Toby Young was just the one that would promote any voice which parroted his own views.