IT seems the Christmas break has failed to bring peace and goodwill to Westminster. I remain in the minority of MPs who support the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal, due to be voted on next week, but it seems my colleagues are coming up with yet more convoluted ways to frustrate the direction of travel.

Meanwhile, outside parliament, the hideousness of the protestors has got to such a state that a number of MPs have written to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner to complain that the level of vitriolic abuse is getting dangerous.

They are right to do so. It is not only MPs that are getting mobbed: left wing Guardian columnist Owen Jones was abused as well.

I will never be a fan of his, but no matter how much I dislike his utterances, there must never, ever be a time when he (or anyone else) is intimidated into silence.

The discourse around Brexit is getting increasingly fractious and angry.

With less time to B-Day than Phileas Fogg had to travel around the world, and absolutely no sign of any clear direction whatsoever, tempers are rising.

The charm offensive is in overdrive. I have now had three meetings with the Prime Minister this week alone. One on the future of trade – very optimistic and exciting; one on the backstop – I’m a fan anyway; and one on the avoidance of a no deal outcome – too many jobs in Wyre Forest depend on the automotive supply chain to risk my constituents’ financial stability on an idealistic position.

But the closing minutes of Channel 4’s excellent drama about the Brexit campaign summed up the risks.

As Nigel Farage announced that victory had come without a shot being fired, Dominic Cummings mumbled an unpleasant expletive about how he was wrong – a shot had been fired into Jo Cox MP.

No one ever imagined an MP could be murdered for her views, but it happened.

No one ever thought that soft right MPs or left wing journalists could be verbally abused to this extent, but it is happening right now.

People are right to be angry that MPs and parliament is failing to find a way forward, but the level of anger and hate is getting increasingly worrying.

Who knows where this will end, but it is a very unhappy period of this great country’s history.