Britain has descended into a Seventies-style swamp. Theresa May needs to be like Maggie to sort it out 

Theresa May in the House of Commons in November 2016
Theresa May in the House of Commons in November 2016 Credit: -/PA Wire

Having been laid low by an attack of shingles I had just about recovered sufficiently to drag myself in to Westminster by the middle of last week.  Maybe I was still in low spirits due to that pernicious virus, but I found very little there to cheer me up.

Perhaps the Prime Minister is trying to bore the Lords into accepting Brexit by arranging debates day after day on the reports of various select committees on aspects of the effects of Brexit on  European policy.  They tend to be dominated – in terms of time if not quality of thought – by Remainers still in a state of grief and disbelief at the outcome of the referendum.  

They have a fair point that some of the arguments deployed by some Brexiteers were a bit wild. But they seem unable to comprehend that, like the Government's dodgy dossier forecasting immediate economic disasters in the wake of a vote to leave the EU, the Remain campaign arguments have been comprehensively demolished by events.

The House of Lords Credit: -/

As I heard one Conservative peer declare that although he, like most Remainers, accepted the result, he doubted that had it gone the other way Brexiteers would have done so, I decided I could take no more of such delusional rubbish and went for a drink.

Things were not a great deal better the following day when Chancellor Hammond made his Autumn Statement in the Commons. He, poor chap, is stuck with that misbegotten creation of the Coalition, the Office of Budget Responsibility, which is still trying to justify the economic forecasts which were at the heart of Mr Cameron's dodgy dossier. As a result, the Chancellor took little account of what has really happened to our economy and painted a picture all too much like that of the Remain campaign in the referendum.

All that has given some real momentum to a rally of the defeated Remain forces who now see a real chance of overthrowing the decision of the referendum. Even Tony Blair emerged from under his stone, dripping with money, to help quell the British independence movement and entrench the rule of Brussels. Now he has been followed by John Major who signed the Maastricht Treaty without a referendum. Like so many supporters of the EU, he openly expresses his contempt for democracy if it conflicts with the pan-European agenda.

It was a pity that the OBR's dodgy forecasts took attention away from Phillip Hammond's sensible efforts to deal with our real predicament. That is that as a country we are living above our means, spending more than we are producing, and we have a government spending more than it can raise in taxes without slowing the economy even more. As the Chancellor said, this is an inevitable consequence of our failure to raise productivity, particularly in our manufacturing sector – we do far better in the service sector where it is rather easier to raise productivity without substantial capital investment.

We faced similar problems in the Seventies and it took Margaret Thatcher's implacable determination to defeat the efforts of the trades union leaders to drag productivity down while forcing labour costs up.  Under the Labour leadership of John McConnell and Jeremy Corbyn, that struggle has been resumed, most notably on the railways, the London Underground and in the NHS. It worries me that Mrs May is fighting on too many fronts and lacking in political banners around which her troops can rally.

By contrast Mr Farage is having a wonderful time. My understanding is that he has no interest at present in either a seat in the House of Lords, nor in becoming our ambassador to the United States. Certainly he would enjoy making some money while proclaiming his role as Mr Brexit on the public speaking circuit in America.  However, I understand that he intends to re-establish himself in the European Parliament and with other European critics of the EU in Brussels. That could well be helpful during Mrs May's Article 50 negotiations, and she might consider an olive branch by way of a knighthood for services to the restoration of British independence.

That would enliven the New Year's Honours List!