Nearly 40 years have passed since Norman Tebbit, who died this week, was a power in the land. He was one of a handful of outstanding Conservative Cabinet ministers who gave Margaret Thatcher vital support in her crusade to save Britain from the depredations of socialism.

Tebbit wasn't an intellectual. He didn't even go to university. But he understood with greater clarity than grander Tories with Oxbridge degrees how militant trade unions were destroying this country. His greatest achievement was to curb their excesses.

Because he was an effective fighter who took no prisoners, the Labour Party feared, loathed and vilified him. That privileged Left-winger Michael Foot famously called him a 'semi‑house-trained polecat'.

If Norman Tebbit was a polecat, he turned out to be an uncommonly kindly one. Both he and his wife, Margaret, were horribly injured in the 1984 Brighton IRA bombing. He eventually mostly recovered; his wife did not, and remained severely disabled until her dying day in 2020.

A few years after the bombing, Tebbit gave up his political career, sacrificing his hopes of leading the Tories in order to look after Margaret. According to one of his obituaries: 'The constant in his life was caring for his wife, cutting up her food, reading to her, turning her over in bed at night so she did not develop sores.'

Few politicians in modern times have paid a greater price for their beliefs than Norman Tebbit. In this he was a world away from the shallow, opportunistic and sometimes venal people who dominate today's political parties.

Second only to Margaret Thatcher, Tebbit was probably more instrumental than anyone else during the 1980s in turning Britain from a country that didn't work into one that did.

Those heroic victories have been squandered. This past week has been another dismal one in which the deficiencies of our politicians and the administrative class have again loomed depressingly large.

Starmer's deal with President Emmanuel Macron seems pointless because for every immigrant returned to France we will have to accept another

On Tuesday, yet another inquiry laid bare the devastating effect of the Horizon IT scandal on sub-postmasters, 13 of whom have killed themselves. Thousands are still waiting for compensation.

And, on Wednesday, the chairman of a different inquiry declared that the victims of the infected blood scandal – half a century ago 'our NHS' managed to give 30,000 people HIV or hepatitis – were being 'harmed further' by the Government's reluctance to pay the compensation that had been finally agreed.

Another week – and more evidence of the dysfunctional British State. I've been thinking of Norman Tebbit, and of course of Margaret Thatcher, and wondering whether there exist politicians of conviction, stamina and determination who might be able to get us out of the mess we're in. And praying that there are.

In many ways the mess is worse than in the 1970s, when Labour last ruined this country. Britain is broken. Wherever you look, the State is failing. Given past experience, who can believe that the lumbering, inefficient NHS will significantly improve, despite the extra billions being ploughed into it?

Think of illegal immigration – scarcely a concern 50 years ago – which is running at record levels. It's obvious to almost everyone that the Government's feeble ruses to 'smash the gangs' won't bear fruit, but Starmer blunders on blindly, repeating his self-righteous platitudes.

His deal with President Emmanuel Macron seems pointless because for every immigrant returned to France we will have to accept another. Britain may send back as few as 50 illegal immigrants a week, about one in 17. Not much of a deterrent. And the EU is yet to agree to this scheme.

Another problem that didn't exist half a century ago is our buckling justice system. Idiotically, the Government is contemplating abolishing jury trial for some crimes, as recommended this week by retired judge Sir Brian Leveson, famous for his unfriendly report on the Press. Another freedom is about to be chipped away.

Leveson also makes the dubious suggestion that criminals who plead guilty should get up to 40 per cent off their jail terms instead of the current maximum of one‑third. Punishments are being reduced because the feckless State hasn't thought to build enough prisons.

Wimbledon has had to contend with the failings of the State, as exemplified by the faltering London Underground

The wreckage of Thatcherite reforms is scattered all around us. Labour recently abandoned a very modest proposal to rein in ballooning welfare spending because of a rebellion by its backbench MPs. It won't try again for fear of another revolt.

On Thursday, the Centre for Social Justice published figures showing that in 2026‑27 a Universal Credit claimant who is not working will receive £25,000 a year in benefits, significantly more than the average living wage of around £22,500 post-tax and National Insurance. This is madness.

Meanwhile – and here it really does feel like the 1970s – the economy contracted again in May after Rachel Reeves's tax increases snuffed out faltering growth. Labour continues to borrow billions of pounds every month. Debt as a proportion of GDP is higher than for over 60 years, and still rising.

Even the laid-back Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, is warning about the readiness of bond markets to go on lending the Government money, as the cost of borrowing continues to increase. The normally sober Office for Budget Responsibility has just opined that Britain's economy is 'increasingly vulnerable'.

This is hardly a surprise. Following Labour's abolition of non-dom status and the tightening of inheritance tax rules, millionaires are leaving the country in droves – 10,800 last year and a projected 16,500 this year, according to one authoritative report.

And what does Sir Keir Starmer do? Why, he refuses to rule out a wealth tax during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday. He appears to understand even less about economics than Rachel Reeves.

A damaging wealth tax will sooner or later be imposed by Labour, causing an accelerated flight of capital as even more multi-millionaires flee Britain. Those who remain will challenge the Government's valuations of their wealth. Result: minimal receipts from a wealth tax – and an even weaker economy.

It's true we don't yet have rampant trade unions stoking inflation as happened in the 1970s, but with Angela Rayner's workers' rights Bill – effectively undoing all of Norman Tebbit's reforms – almost on the statute book, such a prospect isn't far away.

The economy contracted again in May after Rachel Reeves' tax increases

The only saving grace is that there are vibrant private companies which, despite the Government loading them with new taxes, are still thriving. But how many of them will there be in 2029, when Labour is finally voted out of office?

This past week we've seen private enterprise undermined by a dysfunctional State. Wimbledon puts on the world's most successful tennis championship. The owners, the All England Lawn Tennis Ground Plc, are innovative and entrepreneurial.

Yet this great event has had to contend with the failings of the State, as exemplified by London Underground's District Line. Repeated delays and cancellations, reportedly caused by signal failures, have prevented tennis fans from getting to the tournament on time.

Imagine what foreign visitors to the capital must think. It's shaming. Needless to say, Labour's Mayor Sadiq Khan, who is responsible for Transport for London, has kept his head down. Apologies have not been flowing. Come to that, travellers on the District, Circle and other abysmal Underground lines aren't used to hearing the elusive Mr Khan convey any regrets for what is frequently an appalling service.

How very little works well in the public sphere! We are inured to potholes and deteriorating (though increasingly expensive) public services and an HMRC that will keep you waiting on the line for half an hour before speaking to you as though they are doing you an immense favour.

The 16 million customers of failing Thames Water were recently subjected to an increase in their bills of about a third. Yet we read this week that the company's executives are divvying up more than £13 million in so-called retention bonuses. How can this be? In a properly run country most of them would be sacked.

And here is the most depressing thing of all. Few of us believe that things will get any better because for at least 20 years they have only got worse, first under New Labour, then under the Tories (for a while with the Lib Dems in tow) and now under Labour again. Who would deny that decline is speeding up?

There are few, if any, politicians who are prepared to speak the truth, which is that this country is living far beyond its means and is heading – unless there is a radical change of direction – towards bankruptcy and possible civil unrest.

Junior doctors think that the State owes them a living and money grows on trees

In the public sector, millions of workers think that the State owes them a living and money grows on trees. Nowhere is this more evident than in the unhinged minds of the junior doctors (now oddly reclassified as 'resident doctors') who are supposed to be educated and rational people.

They see extra billions of pounds we can't afford being lavished on the NHS, and they want to get their grasping hands on some of it. They are demanding stupendous pay hikes of 29 per cent, having pocketed a 22 per cent rise soon after Labour came to power. Another strike is set for the end of this month.

Junior doctors claim they merely want to receive the same levels of pay they had in 2008, as though this is a kind of divine right. They are living in a fool's paradise. Like many public sector workers, most Labour MPs and more than half the Government, they don't understand that the money is running out.

At the centre of our problems is a defective political class that mostly lacks – there are of course noble exceptions – either a deep commitment to public service or political gravitas.

Some of them regard politics as a way of getting rich. Young people with little experience of life enter politics, do nothing more than manage decline, and then leave to make huge fortunes. Look at Tony Blair, George Osborne and David Cameron.

At the same time, over the past 25 years our political class has farmed out much of the business of government to largely autonomous quangos led by often incompetent and avaricious administrators who are not answerable to the electorate.

I'm thinking of bodies such as Ofwat (which fails to properly regulate the water companies), Ofcom (which plays the same role in relation to telecommunications and the media) and National Highways (supposedly looking after our major roads).

Where are the solid, able politicians who used to govern us? Of course there were rogues and charlatans and fools – I am well aware of that – but at least we felt we were being ruled by grown-ups prepared to take responsibility for their mistakes.

I fear for my country – not for myself or my generation. Largely thanks to politicians such as Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit, many of us baby boomers have had a pretty good run.

No, I'm thinking of my children and the generation that comes after them. Will they live in a stable, confident, unified, reasonably prosperous country? Or will the Britain they inherit be a fractious, poor, unhappy land? I'm afraid it's impossible to bet against the latter.

If there is a spark of hope, it's not to be found in a quick survey of the crop of current politicians. It lies in the past, in the knowledge that great figures – Churchill in 1940, Thatcher in 1979 – have stepped forward to rescue our nation.

I can't discern such a person, but then they are usually difficult to identify before their moment comes. A fading hope that there may yet be a politician or politicians who can rally our abused and broken country is our only consolation.