Theresa May is about to become the most powerful leader in Europe

I suppose the Margaret Thatcher comparisons are inevitable. Britain has had only one other female prime minister, and she was also a tough-minded Tory. Still, it's a poor analogy. Prime ministers are, in large measure, defined by time and circumstance, and here Theresa May is far luckier than her predecessor.

Thatcher took over in 1979, at what must be reckoned Britain's lowest moment. The country had been in decline since 1945, partly because successive governments had sought to inflate away the vast debts Winston Churchill had run up to win the war and partly because of wrong-headed interventionist policies, including the regulation of prices and wages. She faced constant sniping from within her own party and was never much liked by the electorate. The magnitude of her achievement was this: that she defeated every vested interest, took Britain from the being weakest economy in Western Europe to being the strongest, went on to win three general elections and the Cold War – and did it all from a position of relative weakness.

May starts from an altogether more enviable place. She was the overwhelming choice of Conservative MPs – so overwhelming, indeed, that her rivals pulled out of the race. She faces no serious opposition from the other parties. Labor has retreated into far-Left introversion and, according to opinion polls, is heading for its worst defeat since the 1930s, when it first emerged as one of the two main parties. UKIP, which came third in terms of the popular vote at the last election (though the vagaries of the electoral system gave it just one MP) has secured its primary objective – that is, it helped win a referendum on leaving the European Union. Its sole MP, Douglas Carswell, is standing down with a cheerful smile, job done. Its voters are drifting to the party that is actually delivering Brexit, namely the Conservatives.

Meanwhile, the British economy continues to outrun every prediction. The International Monetary Fund, which had warned of an immediate crash in the event of a Leave vote, has yet again upgraded its forecast for 2017 and now expects 2 percent growth. Since the referendum, employment, investment, manufacturing output, growth, retail sales, business confidence, startup launches and the stock exchange have all risen handsomely. The only things that have fallen are the previously over-valued currency and the mood of prominent EU supporters, who can't quite hide their disappointment at the non-appearance of their promised recession.

May voted Remain, but sincerely and enthusiastically embraced the referendum verdict – which, given the narrowness of the result, puts her bang in the middle of where British public opinion is.