JUST a matter of weeks ago, Theresa May called a General Election, saying that Britain needed certainty, stability and strong leadership. Her hope and expectation was that she would be given a thumping majority and so dispense with the trifling matter of worrying about votes in the Commons. In effect, it was an attempt to neuter the opposition.

So how humiliating it must be for the same Prime Minister to be asking the opposition for help. During the election, Mrs May traduced her opponents and attempted to discredit and disempower them, but in a speech which looks like an attempt at a re-launch, Mrs May is now calling for consensus. The message to the other parties is: come forward with your ideas and we can tackle the country’s problems together.

On the face of it, this is a positive development and the Government’s spin on Mrs May’s speech is that consensus is the grown-up way to do politics, although the obvious question is: if this is the grown-up way to do things, why has it only occurred to the PM now? Until recently, Mrs May has chosen the rather more immature approach of denigrating Mr Corbyn – what has changed, of course, is that Mrs May is now weaker and her speech is a public acknowledgement of the fact.

As for the sentiments of the speech, they are heading in the right direction, although the words will have to be followed by actions. Mrs May says that, while the parties might not agree on everything, ideas can be clarified and improved and a better way forward found, but in her first year as PM she has shown no willingness to compromise. On austerity, for example, she still appears to be committed to the policy despite the damage it has done to the economy; she has also shown no willingness to consider raising taxes to pay for better public services, as her opponents have argued.

On Brexit, the prognosis is just as depressing, for different reasons. The PM did not specifically mention co-operation on Brexit in her speech, but when asked about the issue she did say that she was seeking the broadest possible consensus on the issue. However, in reality, despite the disastrous General Election, the PM is still behaving as if she can impose a hard Brexit. The other problem for those who would like to see a soft Brexit is that Labour supports leaving the single market and the customs union so Mrs May’s call for greater co-operation is unlikely to make any difference on the biggest issue of our times.

And anyway, everyone knows what Mrs May’s speech is really about, although no one in her own party is quite saying it in public yet. First, the Prime Minister negotiated a deal with the Democratic Unionists; now she is apparently trying to work more closely with her opponents. But what the Government is really doing is delaying the inevitable. The General Election fatally wounded Mrs May and her government and yet it is still limping on. Far from being the launch pad for a recovery, the PM’s speech is just another sign that is pointing towards the exit.