Shropshire Star comment: Time for PM to rest and recuperate

His reappearance is great news. Messages of goodwill for Boris Johnson have come from around the world, and from across the spectrum of our national political scene.

It has been a time to set political differences aside. This was a family man fighting his own personal battle in intensive care against coronavirus as his loved ones waited anxiously, praying for him to pull through.

He has done so, and is on the mend. That is an enormous relief, and the nation will wish him a speedy recovery.

His time in hospital has necessarily meant that the head of the government's decision-making team has been absent.

Some more hysterical commentators have portrayed this as a vacuum at the top at a critical time. But it doesn't work like that, not in the UK, at any rate. The ship of state sails on regardless, whether or not the captain is on deck. Britain does not have a President, it has a Prime Minister.

Boris will not be taking the reins again any time soon, and nor should he. It is a time to rest and recuperate. As he regathers his strength, he will be itching to return to the fray, so he will need wise, and firm, counsels to dissuade him from doing so.

The strength of Britain's response to this crisis is that it has been a collective one. People have taken on board that we are all in this together. There is a place for constructive suggestions about what can be done better, but it is not a time for egos to be on display and for point scoring.

That applies as much now to the government as everybody else.

When Boris finally returns he may, like many a person before him who has gone back to work after illness, make one of those "you seem to have coped without me" jokes.

Boris is a leader and a figurehead, and we have missed his ebullience, but effective leadership can also be delivered collectively, and co-operatively.

He is head of a team and for that team to "cope without him" will reflect enormous credit on him for his teambuilding skills.