If our leaders have to impose a dystopian new normal, they need to look like they are trying to make the best of it.

A number of years ago, I watched a film called ‘No’, about the successful 1988 referendum campaign to remove General Pinochet from power in Chile and return the country to democracy.

What is little known about this vote is it was widely expected that Pinochet would win and remain in power for a further eight-year term.

Many Chileans felt safe and secure under the regime which provided an immeasurably improved standard of living for those happy not to rock the boat, and ensured that what they earned through hard work would remain theirs. A large number had experienced consumer goods beyond the bare necessities for the first time – an achievement the pro-Pinochet Yes campaign was keen to emphasise.

There was a view that the alternative provided by democracy carried too great a risk of turning the country into something like today’s Venezuela, as many believe it would have been had former Marxist president Salvador Allende not been overthrown by Pinochet.

The man who turned the tide in the referendum was an advertiser called Rene Saavedra, who, initially in secret, took control of the marketing strategy of the No campaign to end Pinochet’s rule.

His idea was to show Chileans that democracy could be fun, in contrast to the Pinochet dictatorship, which was stale, old and boring.

He came up with a very catchy, if rather cheesy, jingle called ‘Chile, Happiness is Coming’.

So popular would this song turn out to be that even members of the Yes campaign would inadvertently end up humming it in their meetings.

The established members of the No campaign, who had been fighting against the dictatorship for 15 years were horrified by the frivolity of it all. They saw Saavedra as completely indifferent to those killed by Pinochet to the point of being disrespectful, and turning the campaign into a joke.

Nevertheless, Saavedra stayed, the No campaign won by a margin of 56 per cent to 44 per cent and Chileans danced long through the night to the tune of ‘Happiness is Coming’.

Politicians and campaigns which are fun tend to do very well.

Take Tony Blair’s 1997 campaign, where a video pretty low on substance but with happy people walking to the ballot box together to the tune of ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ helped secure a 179-seat majority.

In Italy, despite all his flaws as a politician and as a person, Silvio Berlusconi won three elections as he gave the appearance of a man who was loving life and whose opponents hated him for it.

And yes, Boris Johnson remains even today the most electable politician in the UK. His appearance as a buffoon who takes on whatever cause suits him with a smile and without even considering the consequences proved the perfect foil to the ‘Stronger, Safer, Better Off’ killjoys in the Remain campaign in 2016.

Only he could have made Leave the fun option and won the EU referendum.

Yet with coronavirus Boris Johnson, of all people, has led the country down a path that seems completely devoid of hope.

Prime Minister Johnson has followed those who believe that the desire to have fun is a selfish one shared only by those who don’t appreciate the seriousness of the situation – just as the elder statesmen of Saavedra’s No campaign did in 1988.

This path can only lead to disaster.

If our leaders convince the public that the future will be worse than today, with the only question being by how much, people simply will not carry out the tasks and activities that improve mental health, physical health, job prospects and confidence in the economy with any conviction.

Going to the office, shopping, travelling, meeting friends. There’s not much point if you are told every day that it’s not safe and that D:Ream couldn’t have been more wrong – things can only get worse.

The first thing that needs to happen is the government needs to make a decision and level with the public. Will this new normal be temporary or, as Chris Whitty suggests, permanent?

If it is temporary then the government needs to do more to emphasise the temporary nature of it.

They need to explain in binary terms what the criteria is for removing the requirement for masks in indoor spaces, reducing social distancing and, ultimately, getting life back completely to the way it was before March 2020. If it is clear that one last big push will lead us to the promised land then they can expect the full support of the public.

This was the case during the lockdown when the clear, short-term goal of preventing the NHS from being overwhelmed led to far higher levels of compliance than expected.

But if we are looking at a permanent change to the way we live, the least politicians can do is try to look like they’re not hating it as much as so many ordinary people are. They need to stop running scared of  opinion polls and headlines and have some fun while complying with the new regulations they expect the rest of the country to live by.

Ministers should take to Instagram and post exciting, happy pictures of their staycations and show they are making the most of the freedoms they still have. Better yet, they should think of things they weren’t doing before March that they enjoy now.

Risk averse and negative leaders cannot be surprised to see the public remaining risk averse and negative.

The country needs to believe that happiness is coming.