Yep, definitely the evil plan aspect is only a part - the substance is fine (up to a point), to me it's the manner in which it's been done that looks suspect. That whole thing about 500,000 people might die, and then pretending it hadn't really been said, or not meant in that way - it's all very weird
On the 180 degree turn -definitely, and it's not clear that Johnson is that bothered about free market dogma tbh, even before all this. Psycho yes, Friedman/Hayek disciple probably not. So it is unpredictable from that point of view.
definitely the rich have a lot to lose too, so there's a bit of levelling involved with the virus itself. But it's the NHS collapse that will potentially kill more than the virus alone