My goodness, aren’t we lucky to have the Queen, whose speech last Sunday was pitch-perfect. It was a magnificent address, from a magnificent woman.

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Her experience and serenity did more to calm and inspire the nation than anything else I can think of as this crisis has unfolded.

Best of all, she reminded us that there will be life beyond this lockdown — that we will meet again.

If we just focus on the here and now, we won’t be able to prepare for the future beyond the virus.

But it’s also true that none of us can think straight when we are in the eye of the storm.

That is where good leadership comes in. It helps us all to hold strong, not to go to pieces and to stick to the guidance given to us.

LOOKING FOR GUIDANCE

Everyone looks to the leader to make decisions, and it’s the decisions we make that will chart our way out of the crisis.

Unfortunately, after the Queen’s address to the nation came the news that Prime Minister Boris Johnson had been admitted to hospital intensive care.

At that point, anyone who was in any doubt this illness did not discriminate was forced to reconsider.

At the time of writing, Boris was back on a regular hospital ward. But his illness has been a reminder that any of us are susceptible to Covid-19.

Most people are shocked he is in hospital and sympathise with his pregnant girlfriend Carrie Symonds.

But of course it has raised the question: Who is really in charge if he is not? Without leadership, we all get distinctly uneasy.

We all have leaders in our lives. We are all looking towards them to show us what to do and lead us through it.

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Some companies have stepped up to the plate and are doing good things — reassuring their staff, treating people well and doing their utmost to make sure people will be paid. Some aren’t, of course. But good bosses are taking pay cuts and doing everything they can to keep their businesses alive and look after their staff.

At West Ham United we continue to pay all our full and part-time staff 100 per cent of their wages.

My financial director, my manager and I have all taken a 30 per cent reduction to make sure this happens.

It’s when there’s a crisis like this that we see who is made of what.

Boris’s temporary stand-in, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, while talking about the PM’s hospital admission, referred to him as his boss, his colleague, but also his friend.

Respect and friendship are the key words when it comes to good leadership.

A good leader makes the tough decisions because they are right, but they are also governed by ethics. They want to do the right thing, for the right reasons. They are happy to make personal sacrifices to ensure the majority are looked after.

It is more important now, than ever, to put people before profits.

After three weeks of lockdown, with no chance of a let-up, it’s all too easy to fall prey to catastrophic, even apocalyptic thinking.

But we have to shift our thought process. We have to accept and understand that, at some point, this WILL be over.

When things are calmer and clearer, we can ask what we can do to ensure we are still operating as the world gets back to normal — whatever the new normal is.

The experience we are all living through really is like a storm, which continues to rage.

There are so many unprecedented aspects to this situation and there is not one person in the world who will come out of it unchanged.

So while there are so many challenging and difficult things going on, perhaps this lockdown is a chance for us all to learn more about ourselves.

How are you responding? Have you thought about how you can help others? Have you thought about volunteering for the NHS?

As well as the importance of good leadership, we all have our individual roles when it comes to showing autonomy and courage about our own decisions.

I’m sorry to say, things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.

So we all need to take responsibility — or we will never get out of lockdown.

Watts up with Naomi?

ANYONE who saw the social media video of Naomi Watts reaching breaking point after her printer, vacuum cleaner and dishwasher all broke down will surely have smiled in recognition.

Naomi, who has been self-isolating in her Los Angeles home for three weeks, shared her very understandable anguish with a slow-motion video of herself screaming with the sound of a lion’s roar played in the background.

I think we can all relate to her frustration.

My lockdown revelation?

I am happy to report that I have given up ironing!

Fight's on to learn lessons

WHEN it comes to illness, particularly cancer, I’ve long resisted all the talk of going into battle – mainly because of the unhelpful implication of weakness among those who “lose” that fight by dying.

I feel the same way about descriptions of people “fighting” coronavirus.

Illness is a fact of life. It is not a sign of weakness.

The sad and terrible truth is that some people get this virus and others do not.

Some have it very badly – a whole lot worse than others.

We don’t yet know exactly why. We don’t even know if we have the virus and may infect people.

We don’t know if there are antibodies that can protect us from getting it again, or how long that will take.

We don’t know if there will be a more deadly mutation of the same virus in the future.

There is just too much we don’t know.

But there are some practical things we can do.

We need to help those who have it now, and the NHS and the Government are doing all they can in this regard.

We also need to stop the spread of the virus, through testing. Hopefully that is going to happen soon.

Meanwhile, scientists are also working around the clock to create a vaccine.

Perhaps, most of all, we need to prepare for the possibility that this could all happen again.

We need to learn lessons on food distribution, working from home, adapting our businesses – and having proper personal protection and hospital equipment ready and waiting.

Roots of the problem

AS time ticks on, we are all realising what life is like without the things we used to consider necessities.

Like our hairdressers.

Claudia Winkleman’s Instagram post showing how unmanageable her fringe has become during lockdown made me laugh in recognition.

My hair is grey, long and unkempt.

On the one hand, it’s the least of my worries, which is quite liberating.

Still, I did manage to get my hands on some hair dye for the roots.

Do I care that it’s completely the wrong shade?

NO. I do not.

So please, can we all just agree to turn a blind eye to the way we look when we finally emerge from lockdown?

Let's not give up on Easter

HAPPY Easter Sunday, people. How will you be spending yours?

Personally, I have lost track of what day it is. The past few weeks have been a blur, with every day feeling like a cross between Sunday and Monday.

It was my birthday last week and, without loved ones to hug, friends to see, drinks to be had, it was more or less just another day.

Equally, this is the first time ever that Easter has felt like just another weekend.

But I hope you can find ways to make it special. Just make sure you do so at home.

Time we showed respect

THERE has been talk of schools possibly reopening after the Easter holidays – and who knows whether or not that is true?

But one thing I do know is that, whenever they do reopen, working parents will not only give the most massive sigh of relief, they will all be thanking their children’s teachers profusely for everything that they do.

We will all also be thanking doctors, nurses, all NHS employees, as well as bin men, cleaners, shop assistants and all the other key workers we have under-paid and taken for granted.

I really hope that is one thing which changes as a result of this pandemic.

These people are the backbone of our country.

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