In January last year, Theresa May gave a speech setting forth her demands for the Brexit negotiations. It was stirring stuff – as was reflected in the next day’s headlines.

“May to EU: Give Us Fair Deal or You’ll Be Crushed,” proclaimed the Times. “May’s Brexit Threat to Europe,” announced the Guardian. The most impressed, though, was the Daily Mail. “Steel of the New Iron Lady,” trumpeted its front page. Mrs May, it went on, had “put Cameron’s feeble negotiations to shame with an ultimatum to Brussels: We’ll walk away from a bad deal – and make EU pay.”

Yes, that really was the mood of the time. Less than two years ago, it was. What a wild, wild ride it’s been.

Today the Prime Minister made a statement to MPs on her latest progress. Gamely she insisted that her proposed deal passed each of the “six tests” Labour had set. She rattled through them, one by one. “Does it ensure a strong and collaborative future relationship? Yes!” she cried. “Does it ensure the fair management of migration in the interests of the economy? Yes!”

The idea was that her own MPs would join in, and shout “Yes!” at the same time she did. Unfortunately for her, however, barely half of them did – and so they were comfortably drowned out by all the Labour MPs bellowing “No!”