COLUMN: The message is clear as Boris returns

The Prime Minister so overwhelmingly elected in December was back at the helm of Government, and saying a single thing: keep going.

The battle against the coronavirus may not be won yet, but the tide is going in a clear direction.

That is a tribute to the great forbearance of the British people, who up and down the country have largely respected the extraordinary new rules. But it also puts us, as the PM put it, at the ‘moment of greatest danger’.

Isn’t it tempting, with the weekend’s glorious weather and the frustrations of shuttered businesses and rowdy children, to drive to the beach or play football in the park, and to relax beyond the current restrictions. These are the things that seem so innocent and yet right now pose such unjustifiable, virus-spreading risks.

That’s not because the Prime Minister doesn’t, as he said, share the fear of unnecessary economic damage – it’s because without an unassailable, first-round victory over coronavirus, a second peak risks even greater damage to the economy that powers our public services, and which has meant the NHS wasn’t overwhelmed and didn’t run out of ventilators and ICU beds.

The brilliant key workers who have kept Britain going deserve huge thanks, and we all deserve the success that will come if we do as the PM says: keep going, stay home, protect the NHS – and save lives.