Shropshire Star comment: Stick or twist?

It is as if we are at a betting table. Should we take a punt at the big prize, and yet risk losing everything? Or should we stick tight and continue to clutch the miserable hand we have been dealt?

As we begin another month in lockdown, Boris Johnson is counselling patience.

Patience is a virtue, but supplies are not inexhaustible, and there has been some evidence, through the rise detected in the amount of traffic on the roads, that some people at least are beginning to interpret the lockdown rules rather more loosely.

But, Boris says, we must keep going. We are making progress, and must not throw away the chances of victory. It sounds rather like one of those Great War general's rallying cries during a great and costly offensive.

And it is costly. The hardship has been terrible, and the impact on the economy has been devastating. Coronavirus has not been defeated. The deadly curves have been flattened. That flattening represents thousands of lives which have been saved, and thousands of families which have been spared.

We do not know how many, as we can count those who have died, but we cannot reliably measure those who would have died had it not been for the sacrifices everybody has been making.

Despite some creaking here and there, overall response to the lockdown so far has been impressive. The public has had faith that it is the right thing to do. Based on those graphs, it has worked. Every life saved has been a little victory. Alas, we cannot relax and slap ourselves on the back.

The expectation is that even with our best continuing efforts, it is going to take a considerable time to overcome the risk the virus poses to society. Every extra lockdown day means more jobs lost, more businesses going under, more damage.

This is the dilemma, yet in reality until we can have confidence that we are safe from a disastrous coronavirus counter-attack, we have little choice but to dig in, and carry on.

Boris Johnson is offering slog and sweat. The alternative is more tears.