Parliament returned this month from the Christmas recess and the expectation is that politics in 2023 will be less lurid than in 2022.

I trust we are past the peak of political drama for this Parliament, and yet it seems certain that the economic news is going to get worse before it gets better.

Inflation may be falling from the unnatural heights it reached after the lockdowns ended and the Ukraine war began, but we have chronic shortages of supply across the economy and it seems likely that prices will remain painful for some time.

For a decade inflation (the natural consequence of printing money and suppressing interest rates) has been felt mostly in house prices, which was only a problem for first-time buyers; now it is hitting almost everything people need to buy.

It is no surprise that people working for the public sector are asking for higher pay, and they deserve a settlement that helps them cope with the increased cost of living.

But the Government simply can’t let wages chase prices up the spiral of inflation, for this would affect workers’ real pay even more, as well as retarding the recovery we need.

To avoid 1970s-style stagnation we need growth - but not the sort of growth that got us into this mess.

Yes, we need to liberalise financial services (as the government is doing); yes we need foreign workers for some key sectors; yes we welcome imported goods and global free trade; and yes, at the right moment, we may need the stimulus of a rate cut.

But fundamentally we need an economy that generates value through the productive energy of British entrepreneurs and British workers, not the artificial boost of cheap credit, cheap labour, and cheap foreign produce.

I have also been pleased by the success of the Great Bustard breeding programme.

You may remember my clandestine visit last year to their secret location on the escarpment of Salisbury Plain.

The massive creature - the largest flying animal in the world - is Wiltshire’s county bird.

It was hunted to extinction in these islands in the 19th century, but thanks to the efforts of the Great Bustard Group it is now back and breeding self-sufficiently. Such good news.