Mrs May shows she's game for a laugh

In her first major set piece speech since her general election victory - and she did win, believe it or not, with the Tories ending up as the biggest single party - she deftly slipped in one or two gags.

"We should care how people are treated when they are at work - whether they feel safe and secure, with the opportunity to get on and make progress," she said deadpan.

Boom, boom! It's the way she tells 'em! Have anybody in mind, Prime Minister?

She spoke about the new context of her administration having no overall majority.

Debate and discussion were the hallmarks of our Parliamentary democracy, through which ideas could be clarified and improved and a better way forward found, she declared.

Yes, we've all noticed that in Prime Minister's Questions.

"Very good point, Mr Corbyn. You do have some bright ideas. I shall adopt them immediately."

As if.

But she left the best bit of rip-roaring humour to the very end. It was much-heralded and much-trailed.

Here goes, and get ready to chortle...

"At this critical time in our history we can either be timid or we can be bold. We can play it safe or we can strike out with renewed courage and vigour, making the case for our ideas and values and challenging our opponents to contribute, not just to criticise."

Now objectively, Labour, the Lib Dems and other parties do contribute in the House of Commons. But from Mrs May's point of view they are ideologically coming from the wrong place. So she ignores them.

She finished her speech, made during the launch of the Taylor report which she had commissioned, looking at modern working practices, by promising to create a better, fairer, Britain.

Apparently strong and stable leadership is no longer a top priority or, if it is, she didn't mention it.

Dipping into the political history books - and in politics history is anything over a week old - we find that Mrs May called the general election for June because those opposition parties were being deliberately obstructive, colluding and conniving to frustrate the Brexit process.

Fast forward not that far, and she wants them to be her new best friends. In her best Churchill-max mode, she says let us all go forward together in a spirit of unity to get us through the Brexit process.

There are two possible scenarios to explain this change of heart. If this was an episode of Star Trek, Doctor Who, or any other sci-fi programme, the conclusion that everybody would immediately jump to is that Mrs May has been taken over by aliens.

The prosaic alternative is that her authority and ability to govern has been dramatically diminished and she needs help and support from whatever quarter she can get it.

It is almost exactly a year since she became the Prime Minister, her support coming from Tory MPs who considered that she would be the safest pair of hands.

They are now wondering, if she is a safe pair of hands, why is there such a mess on the floor?

Her call for political unity in challenging times had overtones of what leaders would say in wartime. Perhaps a penny is dropping.

For the moment the talk is of friendly negotiations being held in a friendly and co-operative spirit with our friendly partners in Europe in that friendly organisation the EU.

But diplomacy is war by other means, and as the real negotiating battles - yes, battles - begin with the EU, those friendly smiles will become more and more fixed.

Whoever leads Britain in the process is going to need some fighting spirit - in a friendly way, of course. Judging by her performance yesterday, that person will not be Mrs May.

She was lacklustre and stumbled occasionally over her scripted lines, and had the air of somebody weary and without a bold and confident vision for the future, which may be because she has an inkling of what the future may actually hold.

The reinvention of Mrs May as an all-party consensus politician is not going to fool anyone. The relaunch to create TM2 is an unconvincing political ploy which she probably doesn't even believe in herself and has been dictated entirely by the circumstances which she has created.

Her survival as leader is in question. As she walks in the Westminster corridors she will imagine she can see the glint of assassins' daggers in the dark corners.

Not a very happy birthday then. Yet, from Mrs May's perspective, it isn't all bad.

She is still in office. And it is a good time to be an endangered Tory Prime Minister. Party plotters with ideas of bumping her off, politically speaking, have to take into account the critical nature of the current times, with those looming Brexit talks. Theresacide could be interpreted as unpatriotic.

Would they be hailed as heroes, or would they be denounced as villains?

Meanwhile the opposition parties will indeed "contribute". Mrs May will reject their contributions. Nobody will be surprised.

It's called politics.