Boris Johnson needs to grow up and give Britons the bad news about lockdown

As road and foot traffic visibly edge towards pre-lockdown levels, Johnson must be clear: if people won’t obey the rules, they will be compelled to do so. It’s as stark a message as a peacetime prime minister has given, writes Matthew Norman, and none has been worse-suited to making it than Boris

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For fans of incalculably daft Anglo-American leadership, Boris Johnson’s return is well-timed. Dr Trump’s sudden withdrawal from the UV spotlight to concentrate on patenting his Toilet Duck intravenous drip leaves a colossal void. Who better to fill it than his trusty sidekick in the smash-hit Dumb and Dumber 4: This Time It’s Lethal! If any revered statesman can substitute for the Bleach-Injector-In-Chief, you’d assume it’s the super-schlemiel who bragged about shaking hands with everybody in a Covid-infected hospital.

The prime minister’s political enemies will join his friends in hoping he is up to taking the difficult decisions with more urgency than the Cobra-shirker displayed before his admission to intensive care. His primary task is to remind an increasingly amnesiac population that the danger is as intense now as ever it was.

Every day, the streets and shops grow busier. By some malign osmosis, the idea that the peril is waning, and that lockdown should be drawing to its close, is taking root.