The ski slopes of Europe will be strangely bereft of British politicians this month, as MPs have had their February half-term holiday cancelled to enable Parliament to complete as much of the pre-Brexit business as they can before “D-Day”, March 29.

But given the way MPs have handled, or rather mishandled, this crisis so far, cynics are tempted to suggest the holiday should go ahead – giving mischief-making MPs fewer opportunities to make a bad situation that much worse.

Equally, the Government desperately needs enough time to complete all the legislation required to enable Brexit to happen at all.

A substantial number of MPs seem to have forgotten their promise that they would abide by the result of the Brexit referendum, whatever the outcome. This is more than simply the forgetting of a casually-made undertaking: It is a defiant and dishonourable failure to keep a solemn promise. So don’t expect any improvement in the disgraceful behaviour of a number of MPs who would probably be doing far less damage on those Alpine ski slopes.

l I suppose governments have to cover all manner of contingencies, but the plans to evacuate the Queen to a place of safety in the event of no-deal Brexit disturbances is seen by some as a little far-fetched.

I recall King George VI staying put in the capital during the London blitz. In fact, he and Queen Elizabeth (the present Queen’s mother) visited and gave succour to many of the victims in the worst-hit areas.

And Margaret Thatcher went a stage further. She lamented the fact that she could not sail with the task force to fight in the Falklands War. What a girl!

l The volume of nuisance calls and cold calls – most of them designed to empty your bank account by fraudulent means – does not appear to have abated, despite Government’s warnings of severe punishment for those caught in the act.

I was once told by someone who worked in 10 Downing Street how they deal with weirdos and others who make unwelcome calls.

The person who receives such a call merely cuts himself off while he is actually talking, on the invariably correct assumption that the caller would not believe for one minute that someone talking on the phone would actually cut himself off while in full flow.

Ingenious? I should say so.