HALLELUJAH! Boris Johnson is back.
The prime minister is alive and looking healthy again, which is a personal miracle and something any sound minded human being should celebrate.
But now the country needs him to perform like his hero Winston Churchill, a wartime leader who will put every fibre of his being into getting us out of this calamity.
I feel confident that he will do just that.
Let’s be honest, there has been a serious leadership vacuum these past few weeks.
While presidents and prime ministers in other countries around the world have presented their citizens with varying plans of how they will emerge from lockdown, cabinet ministers here have largely stayed silent in public.
They have stuck to the message of staying home to save lives, despite an acknowledgement privately that it could cause other problems in the medium and long-term.
The first major job has been achieved. Despite bumps along the way, especially in regards to PPE, care homes and testing, the NHS was not overrun as first feared by this pandemic.
So now comes the hard part for Boris: How to tweak the messaging so that the vulnerable stay safe and younger members of the population get back to work in order to avoid a second Great Depression.
I am sick and tired of the usual Twitter naysayers slagging off the British public for what has been an incredible effort the last month.
We have obeyed lockdown, despite living in a high population density country where many of us – me included – don’t even have a garden.
The death toll is devastating but we are flattening the curve.
To try and say that folk walking to the park with their families for some much needed exercise are putting lives at risk is simply ridiculous.
In a matter of weeks it’s going to be essential for people to feel the confidence to leave the house, take public transport, go to work and live life, while still acting responsibly and maintaining social distancing wherever possible.
The lack of a clear message has left many members of the public concerned, anxious, impatient or, in some cases, too terrified to leave the house, even though they are at low risk of Covid-19 causing a serious health issue.
Boris will have great respect for what people with the disease are going through. He knows just how deadly this damn disease can be.
But an economic depression will be just as deadly. Perhaps for many years to come.
As Phones 4U founder John Caudwell put it starkly today: “The lockdown has gripped our economy in a deadly embrace – one from which it may never fully recover.”
We have to learn to live with the coronavirus threat long-term, until a vaccine is developed, while re-starting the economy wherever possible.
Boris must seize back the initiative as quickly as possible and trust us to understand his plan. Our very future is relying on it.