Coronavirus: Johnson clear there will be no sudden nirvana

The political could hardly be more personal.

But the prime minister's return to work and return to health is far from a metaphor for the country making a quick recovery from the crisis.

In contrast, Boris Johnson's statement at the lectern this morning was a request to the public to be patient, to keep going, to hold firm through the frustrations of living life mainly behind closed doors for a while longer.

Despite some restlessness among the public, increasing volume in his own party, and from the opposition for a clearer route out of this, for the prime minister it's not yet the time to give more detail, and certainly not yet the time to change any of the restrictions.

And when that time is reached, when the infection rate is deemed low enough, he was clear, that there will be no sudden nirvana - life in the 'next phase' will be a slow return of a more familiar rhythm, acknowledging, but not being swayed by demands to open up the economy much more swiftly.

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Mr Johnson wanted, as ministers have in recent days, to emphasise what the government believes it has achieved in recent weeks - slowing the spread of the disease with distancing measures, and stopping the NHS from being overwhelmed.

There was barely a mention of the difficulties we've heard from around the country over medics and care staff being short of the kit they need to protect themselves, what's going on behind closed doors in care homes, or the bumpy progress in testing.

Not much acknowledgment either that other leaders, like the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, and others in Europe, have been much more candid with the public already about how the next phase might actually look.

He promised he would be transparent in the coming days, but would not follow them today.

But with only a few slips into his more familiar pre-pandemic tone, branding the virus "an invisible mugger" the country was trying to wrestle to the ground, this was a serious statement from the prime minister, in exceptional times, to explain to the public Downing Street's thinking, but a speech largely designed to hold the line.