Coronavirus cases are once again exploding in the United Kingdom. Yet Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government, dominated by extremist ideologues who value their notion of individual freedom above the public good, is again unwilling to impose necessary measures — a reluctance that has already cost innumerable lives in previous COVID-19 waves.
Last month, about a hundred Tory Members of Parliament voted against a very modest government plan that mandates the wearing of masks and vaccine certificates in some places. As hospitals fill up again with COVID-19 patients, they talk about an ancient British tradition of liberty. "We’re not a ‘papers please’ society,” Tory MP Marcus Fysh claimed, ‘This is not Nazi Germany.'
Given such anti-government rhetoric, you might not guess that Johnson, who has been dogged by reports he was partying at his official residence during a general lockdown last year, and has often appeared maskless in public spaces, matches Donald Trump in his disdain for public health regulations.