This coronavirus crisis has forced the retirement of pantomime Johnson | Andrew Rawnsley

The government's strategy comes with risks, but so do all the alternatives

A pandemic is testing global leadership and its capacity to rise to the challenge of "the worst public health crisis for a generation". To some surprise, the man who said that is addressing the emergency in a more mature fashion than many anticipated when it first began to unfold. Boris Johnson has abandoned the "invisible man" act for which I mocked him a fortnight ago and located the serious side of his character. The pantomime Johnson has been retired from public spectacle and replaced with the sombre Johnson we now see at news conferences. At his most recent, he struck an appropriately sober tone when he warned: "I must level with the British public: many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time", words prime ministers usually don't expect to utter outside wartime. Candour, not a quality always associated with this prime minister, is essential. Fear, panic and conspiracy theories are fomented when people suspect that their leaders are not telling them the truth. The Opinium poll that we publish today suggests that more people than not have confidence in the government's handling of the coronavirus crisis, but the margin is not a very solid one.

The prime minister has been flattered by comparison with Donald Trump. His multiple flaws are being pitilessly highlighted by a crisis that a man who does not believe in scientific evidence or international cooperation is hopelessly ill-equipped to handle. Variously dismissing the coronavirus as "a hoax" cooked up by his opponents to deny him re-election or no worse than the flu, he has swung from juvenile denialism to blaming it on foreigners and Democrats. Then he suddenly announced travel bans and declared a "national emergency".