There is a saying from ancient times that those which the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad. I certainly feel that I am living through a time when our leading politicians are mad, certainly if the definition of madness is insisting on doing things that are not in the interests of the people they represent. For example, why would mad Ed Milliband pursue a policy suite which by design makes the energy we consume in the UK the most expensive in the western world, which in turn makes everything more expensive and thus impoverishes the people of Britain? At the same time his policies are exporting jobs and pollution with no meaningful reduction in global CO2 emissions. It doesn’t make sense.

Similarly, Chancellor Reeves continuously proposes that the government pursue economic growth while introducing policies that do the reverse. To add insult to injury she has introduced a weapon of mass distraction by encouraging an argument over Brexit, in order to cover up her own failings and reignite a settled matter, endangering Britain’s ability to make its own choices.

On that subject it is bizarre that the Rejoiners of the left prefer not to have freedom of choice to make decisions about Britain’s future but instead prefer to be subject to will of EU bureaucrats and the lowest denominator of pan-European politics – are these people children? The fact that the government is making monumentally bad choices on the economy, security and immigration is not a reason to abandon freedom of choice.

This current government is one of worst of my lifetime. But I lived through the 1970s when PM Heath decided to opt for the politics of despair and join the Common Market rather than fixing the problems of the country, despite its clear objective of becoming a federal state.

The decade in which Labour destroyed the economy to such an extent that we had to seek a bail out from the IMF and the then-Chancellor, Denis Healey, created an upper tax threshold of over 90%!

Britain has now sunk to 38th in the world on the measure of GDP per capita having been overtaken by South Korea. We are not a rich country any more, despite what our virtue signalling, power hungry leaders would have us believe

But do not despair because it is never too late, it is never impossible to change things given the correct economic environment and political leadership.

Take for example South Korea. A country that had a GDP per capita equivalent to that of Kenya in 1955, it has no natural resources and yet through the talent and hard work of its people it has doubled its GDP multiple times to become what it is today.

So too does this apply to many emerged economies around the world, the difference is that the UK has unnatural advantages. We are blessed with abundant physical resources: coal, oil, gas – they are not going anywhere thanks to Ed and so are ready to be exploited. Fish and a temperate climate for farming. We have intellectual resources: the best universities, the common law, the English language, people with drive and ability suppressed for the time being. An independent government still with choices, thanks to Brexit.

Even with our debt mountain Britain can emerge great again , we have had debt mountains before courtesy of Napoleon , The Kaiser and Adolf and prior incompetent leaders. All we need is to create an environment in which the talented and hard working can invest , thrive and prosper. For that we need five things – the removal of red tape, access to finance, financial reward, low taxes and free trade. It isn’t rocket science unless you are called Starmer, Reeves or Bailey.

John Longworth is Chairman of the independent Business Network of family businesses , an entrepreneur and businessman and former MEP