Thursday did not start well for Matt Hancock. Britain’s 41-year-old health secretary began a morning television interview looking like a glummer version of the chipper, Cheshire-born economist he was before he became an MP 10 years ago. It got worse as he was pounded for a string of government blunders over coronavirus testing and equipment failures. Then came a question that went something like this: In New Zealand, where they have had just two Covid-19 deaths per million people (in the UK it’s more than 200), prime minister Jacinda Ardern has just said she and her ministers would take a 20 per cent pay cut to show solidarity with those struggling financially because of the outbreak. Will you?

“Well I’m not proposing to do that,” said Mr Hancock. “What I am proposing to do is work every hour that there is.” Asked the same question, Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, said firmly: “It’s not something that’s being considered.”

The first thing I thought about this was that it was unsurprising. Ms Ardern has been a model of compassionate leadership in this crisis. The second thing I thought was the leaders she is showing up must be starting to loathe her. It’s not that she is perfect. Before the outbreak she was in trouble for failing to deliver on a slew of housing, poverty and tax plans, having once declared 2019 would be her government’s year of “delivery”.