What Prime Minister Boris Johnson needs to tell the nation in this frivolous age - Bernard Ingham

But what about beef, mutton or pork? Apparently we are technologically to conjure protein out of thin air.

The plan looks to be at odds with the great treeplanting and rewilding programme but, to assuage the greens, we hear of the idea of requiring schools, hospitals and prisons to provide vegan meals. How politically correct!

This is the problem with Mr Johnson. He is rather frivolous to match this frivolous age in which TV and the anti-social media have reduced our attention span to that of a gnat.

No longer do Prime Ministers give “blockbuster” in-depth interviews like Margaret Thatcher to set the Government’s plans in an overall context. The result is that the Government is widely condemned for lacking a strategy.

I therefore consider it my columnist’s duty to try to remedy the situation.

Based on my understanding of what Conservatism should be, this is my summary of what Mr Johnson needs to say, if he can bring himself to do it: “Since I became PM I have been firefighting – first to get Brexit done, then to conquer a lethal pandemic and now to contain that war criminal, Putin.

“We are still plagued with milder Covid and an ever more desperate Putin and, of course, ‘partygate’ rumbles on in spite of my apologies. But now, mid-term, I feel I must set out what and how I am seeking to achieve over the coming years.

“First, I must make it clear it will take some years to re-balance the economy after our heavy expenditure on keeping the country going during the pandemic. It is going to be a long, hard slog.

“In facing up to it we must, for example, review our environmental aims against the need to secure our energy supplies.

“While trying to set a green example, our priority, especially in the light of the huge surge in energy prices, must be to secure more domestic supplies just as we need to grow more of our own food.

“It will also be a long slog to reform our progressively failing social services – notably, the NHS and social care, education, law and order and housing provision linked with immigration.

“At the same time Putin has made it clear that the West will have to defend itself better against his efforts to take over Europe as the new Russian empire-builder. That will not come cheap.

“We shall not succeed in re-girding the nation unless we face these uncomfortable facts and all resolve to get the economy back on an even keel, thereby protecting us from future crises.

“That means we cannot afford slackers, exploiters or the trade unions’ strike mania to hold the taxpayer to ransom, regardless of the new twist it will give to the inflationary spiral hitting both working people and the elderly. Don’t forget, this surge in the cost of living is directly related to the pandemic and Putin.

“Unless the unions discover their national duty, they may find strikes in public services outlawed. They have been warned.

“Against this background, my prime objectives are to contain inflation and repair the economy and our defences. It is the true Conservatives’ aim to reduce taxes, the size of the state and promote personal responsibility and enterprise. But that has to be consistent with clearing debilitating debt which is currently costing £83bn a year to service.

“I intend to cut taxes where we can be reasonably confident it will not impair revenue. My aim at all times is to promote growth to help clear the debt.

“And I am determined to reduce the size of the Government machine.

“Civil servants who persist in working from home in spite of failing services to the taxpayer who keeps them in relative comfort need to sharpen up their ideas.

“Too many of them are asking to be sacked.

“Over the past two years you have come to see me as an optimist with big ideas to advance a resilient UK’s standing in the world. I am still an optimist and ambitious for the nation.

“But I would be deluding myself and everybody else if I did not publicly recognise the enormous effort required to achieve those ambitions.

“Nor can the Government achieve them alone. It requires all of us to put our backs into it. “We all need to ask ourselves: ‘Are we doing our bit?’”