Yet we have now allowed ourselves to become bogged down in the fruitless quest for a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU, wasting precious time and making concession after concession to try and achieve one. It is fruitless essentially because the EU is determined that we should not get anything that can be presented as a good deal, as that might, either now or in the future, encourage other member states to follow suit. That includes, in particular, the European Parliament, which, let us not forget, has a veto on the outcome.

The most important point made by Theresa May in her excellent Lancaster House speech about Brexit a year ago was that no deal on trade with the EU was better than a bad deal. Yet she appears to have lost her nerve, and — no doubt encouraged by the bureaucracy, who are horrified by the idea of Brexit — has allowed herself to be maneouvred into imagining that no trade deal would be a disaster.

This is manifest nonsense. It is also the cause of most of her current difficulties. It is only the will o’the wisp of a good trade deal that gives the Irish Republic its bargaining power.

The issue of the border with the UK is straightforward. There is already, of course, a border. Britain’s departure from the EU will necessarily add a complication. But with co-operation and goodwill on both sides, assisted by the full use of the latest technology, it can remain a relatively unobtrusive border. To suggest that this will imperil the peace process and lead to a recurrence of the Troubles is irresponsible scaremongering. Yet it appears that the British government is prepared to compromise its regulatory autonomy over this.

The provisional agreement that Mrs May secured in December is just about acceptable so far as it goes. But let us be quite clear. The UK’s regulatory autonomy, post-Brexit, must be unfettered. It is an essential attribute of national sovereignty, which is what Brexit is all about.

Some have already rightly pointed out that its surrender would prevent the conclusion of future trade deals between the UK and the faster-growing markets of the rest of the world. Even more important, it would negate our ability to reduce the burden of EU red tape on the masses of Britain’s small businesses, most of whom do little or no overseas trade.

So we find ourselves today quite unnecessarily as a supplicant, in a humiliating state of cringe, begging for what is both unnecessary and unattainable — a posture which would have been anathema to Margaret Thatcher.

The time has come to call an end to this demeaning process. We must get up off our knees. Enough is enough.

The government should instead devote its energies, as is long overdue, to making the necessary arrangements for leaving without a bilateral trade agreement and preparing the regulatory changes to take greatest advantage of our new-found freedom.

Let us honour the memory of Margaret Thatcher by recovering our national self-confidence and national pride, and securing a Brexit she would have been proud of.