Strong and stable words were calm riposte to EU bullies and opponents

We’d be lying if we said we weren’t concerned. After Theresa May’s Salzburg Snub when EU leaders variously ostracised and belittled her, we feared she might not recover from such a humiliating defeat.

Would she stagger bloodied and bowed into yesterday’s hastily arranged press conference still wrapped in silver thermal blanket and reeling with shock?

Would she resign? Or worse, emote? We need not have worried.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister gave an extraordinary, unflinching address that was, quite simply, the political speech of her life.

Although ostensibly aimed at the nation, her strong and yes, stable, words were also aimed at a much wider audience.

They served as a withering riposte to the bullyboys of Europe. When she asserted with great dignity that “Throughout this process, I have treated the EU with nothing but respect. The UK expects the same”, let us hope the heads of Europe were hung in shame.

But she was also making an unequivocal statement of intent to the scheming malcontents in her party who would seek to undermine and even depose her at this eleventh hour.

It was a stunning hat-trick, all the more so for being entirely unexpected. Calm and composed, her unwavering voice shot through with Sheffield steel, Mrs May put paid to the hard Brexit naysayers briefing against her in the corridors of Westminster.

“For over two years I have worked day and night to deliver a deal that sees the UK leave the EU,” she said. “I have worked to bring people with me even when that has not always seemed possible. No one wants a good deal more than me.”

In other words; stuff that in your Rees-mogg pipe and smoke it. But best of all she generously illuminated the current ins and outs of Brexit so that for a fleeting, golden moment we watching from home actually understood the concept of a Northern Ireland backstop.

Then, just as swiftly, the blinding clarity was gone. But in truth, she forcefully conveyed all we really needed to hear, namely that if anyone is going to remorselessly plough their way through the horribly-stressfulyet-weirdly-boring quagmire of these Brexit negotiations it is the Maybot. Or rather, the Maybot reboot XS Max.

Overnight she had been transformed from Thursday’s stricken shadow of a creature we saw attempting to save face before the world’s cameras in Austria into Friday’s implacable, confidenceinspiring stateswoman intent on ultimate victory.

We couldn’t see her shoes, but we imagined them to be as spiked as Boudicca’s chariot wheels, tatters of Brussels red tape streaming in her wake, as she strode in to battle for hearts, minds and a combined customs territory. She spoke thrillingly of frictionless trade and looked unhappy about the current “impasse”, which is French (metaphorically and in this instance literally, thanks to M. Macron) and therefore just the kind of word which will no longer be welcome to our shores once we – sort of – leave the EU.

It was interesting too, to observe that while she called for “compromise” she never uttered the other “c” word. Not once.

Instead, the much-disputed Chequers deal or no deal hung in the air like a miasma.

It’s been polluting the atmosphere and poisoning politics for weeks now, memorably leading David Davis and Boris Johnson to stumble, choking from the Cabinet.

But presumably acting on the abiding principle recognised by children and lift passengers alike that “whoever smelled it, dealt it” our PM fastidiously refused to acknowledge that her very own Chequers brainwave might be the source of her woes.

She concentrated instead on throwing down a gauntlet to the EU from her lofty moral high ground and demanding they return to the table with counter proposals.

It was slick, it was controlled, it was convincing. She has assured us that she had our backs.

Only a fool would try and oust her now. Then again, Westminster is full of them.

Politics is by common consent, the art of possible. On current form, there’s a chance Mrs May could just achieve the impossible.

Either way, she has taken up the joyless challenge of making Brexit happen.

It will be down to the next poor sod to make it actually work.