They could learn from wartime government and acknowledge that if we’re all in this together we need to balance awareness of the gravity of the situation with keeping up the morale necessary to endure it and prevail. Get us to believe it’ll be worth it. Too many have had enough already.

That's a good analogy!

On which point, it’s worth remembering that Churchill’s rather sombre “blood, toil, tears and sweat” speech was closely followed by two much more uplifting ones “we shall fight them on the beaches “ and “this was their finest hour “