Half Standard Rose
I have had a half standard rose for four years, I think its called either Golden Showers or Golden Wedding, despite all my care, feeding and spraying, it constantly has black spot and rust it is not doing very well, in fact it looks very poorly. 
It has very few flowers throughout the season and they do not last more than a few days when opened, I am wondering whether to prune it quite hard. Has anyone any suggestions
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If you have black spot and rust now, it's unlikely going to improve. Start thinking about preparing it for the rest of this year going into the winter time and also for next year. I can't comment on how long a flower lasts as there are so many varieties around and some fair better in wet weather, others don't. Some hold better and for longer whilst others only last a few days. It's all down to the particular rose you happen to have.
I think Golden Showers repeat flower so it's important to keep dead-heading the spent blooms. Sometimes, you can prune further back if you feel the branches have become tired and laxed. The next re-growth may take a little longer, but you should have more for later in the month.
All dead leaves need to be removed from the base of your soil. Do not leave it over the winter time. To be more careful, I recommend carefully scraping off the top layer of soil and laying new layer of good compost, or mulch. In spring next year, a layer of manure (but not touching the base stems) would be ideal to get the roses off to a good start.
I also forgot to say that roses tend to do better in sunny areas, so if your rose has less than 4 hours of sun a day, it might be a good idea to re-plant it somewhere else that has more sun in autumn time.
Thank you, I will definitely put some new compost around the rose. I will manure it next Spring and give it a light prune, although I did prune it in Spring this year.
About the pruning, whether standard or shrub roses, they need yearly pruning, preferably in spring time, which is what you have done. This will promote a shrubbier growth which means more flowers. Any light pruning can also be done in winter, but this is just to keep the plant compact so not to be damaged by winter winds. The dead-heading throughout the year is just snipping off dead flowerheads, but best to snip further back to next leaf join.
Thank you, I did prune in Spring and also dead head back to a leaf joint. The main stems on the rose look what I can only describe as old, very little now growth from them. I will try to get a photo and post it.