Also more room to manoeuvre than in the blair brown years because there is no gordon brown. There is no one going around with lots of aggression, both theirs and others, determined to oust the incumbent. Interestingly, tony blair also got caught by a pack ofjournalists on the plane when doctor david kelly died. They got a lot of commentary out of him in that time. There seems to be something that happens on aircraft. I think you are right. The dilemma that theresa may faced was if she did not declare this, she was in dangerof if she did not declare this, she was in danger of becoming a caretaker and lame duck prime minister. She has to be all in. She cant be half pregnant, so to speak. Whether it is the intention to stay, she needs to declare this or else she loses control. I dont think she is going to stay. Obviously she will wait until the brexit negotiations and then she will go and you are quite right. You know, she cant say no, i wont stay otherwise she will be deadin wont stay otherwise she will be dead in the water. She will wait for the brexit negotiations. I cant see her leading the conservative party. Into an election . There was speculation after the election that the mays leadership might have been under attack before that, but her fortu nes under attack before that, but her fortunes have improved considerably. David davis is the one to watch out for. The Bigger Picture is, you are right, it was the only answer she could give as the leader of the conservative government, but in national terms, what is this good for if she stays . She is, as many people have commented, she has lost her credibility. She went into an election she did not need to and lost the conservatives seats and ended up with a Hung Parliament which means that the government is too weak to legislate. At a time when britain is dealing with brexit, economic stagnation, wage stagnation and spiralling costs. We have a government that is ineffectual. They cannot do anything to address real issues and problems. So when we look at her in terms of she is doing the responsible thing, and that might be true for her party because the conservatives dont have another leader otherwise she would be replaced in a flash. They simply do not have anyone to replace her with. It might be good party, but what is good for the country . You could make the argument that it would be better for the conservative party to have a leadership challenge, even if that precipitate another election. One of the reasons for her making the comment now is that the Party Conferences coming up. She would not wa nt conferences coming up. She would not want to Say Something like, im going to go because then the party co nfe re nce going to go because then the Party Conference will become an election for which is the last thing they want. Its going to be anyway. They are too disgruntled with her and there is too much disunity within there is too much disunity within the party for that plaster, that band aid to stick. And to your point, alex, there is no obvious successof point, alex, there is no obvious successor and that is different to where we were a few months ago. Successor and that is different to where we were a few months agom has change quickly. There is no obvious person around whose ambitions might coalesce, but i disagree with rachel. There are plenty of people around the cabinet table that are qualified to hold the role of prime minister, it simply that the mays position does more to defend itself when she is in the mode of governing and not campaigning. Any party that calls an election when it doesnt need to and does not get the result it wants, its not good. I disagree with rachel though because challenges to theresa may are far less likely than these conversations imply. Theresa may are far less likely than these conversations implyli theresa may are far less likely than these conversations imply. I know where going to talk about brexit in a moment. They dovetail we see the labour party defining a different position over the last week and so it becomes a more nuanced going for her to try to figure out how to navigate brexit. It is not going well and whether or not she can deliver something that is going to satisfy enough people, i think it will determine her own future. Mihir, you mentioned david davis. Lets talk about him and what he has been saying. He said that things had got a little tense this week. Thats the word he used as brexit tools were into their third round. Another british minister, liam fox, said the country shouldnt be blackmailed by the eu over the divorce bill. Michel barnier, the blocs chief negotiatior, expressed frustration at the slow pace of discussions. Rachel, youve been writing a lot about europe. David davis says through all of this, he remains optimistic. Are you . No, iam no, i am not optimistic. No, iam not optimistic. It no, i am not optimistic. It is not looking good, is it . It was a deadlock and it was to be expected. In terms of the eu black men in britain, i mean i would not expect anything other than the eu looking after now its 27 remaining states. Ido after now its 27 remaining states. I do not expect it to do anything different, so i think its a bit ridiculous and certainly, i can understand the frustration of the eu negotiators saying, look, we need to see some paperwork here. Something, anything. Give us some indication of where this is going so we can negotiate, so we can start negotiating. What is becoming more and more clearer is how much brexit is really an ideology rather than a deliverable practical reality, but we are where we are, we voted to leave and we to execute that. I think what is becoming clear now is that there is a difference between the two. The their political reality of what they are saying rhetorically is very much what the negotiating situation is. For britain, the political reality differs from the rhetoric that brexiteers have been giving us over what we might expect from a deal and i think the government, its incumbent on them to manage peoples expectations and said look, we promised you a lot of stuff we cant deliver. We dont know yet, we might be able to deliver it. It is early days, actually. The writing is on the wall. We do know, the cake and eat it thing is something we know. We cannot have the same conditions and exit. Things will change, right . Its likely they will change for the worst, at least in the short term and we almost certainly do need a conditional deal that needs as much continuity in place as is possible and certainly parliament to have changed their position on that has made a difference. Its not tenable one have any parliamentary wait. There is a big gap between what the public has been promised and what actually will be the case. That is a problem the britain in a way it isnt for the eu. This notion of blackmail is very much about trying to set up a bogeyman that says, oh, it is therefore. In europe this is not a big deal as it is here. This is britains problem. The people of france and germany in the netherlands are waking up and saying, i want to have a brexit negotiations went this week . They have their own issues. Macron has transformed the french economy. Thats what theyre talking about in the french media. This is an old political game. Those bad guys in brussels, the eu were making it difficult and not playing fair. This isa difficult and not playing fair. This is a british problem and britain has to find a way to negate the gate find a way to navigate with the eu. On the one hand the rhetoric coming out of the eu is wholly accurate, on the other hand the rhetoric from the United Kingdom is outrageous, and serves and does not reflect reality. Both sides are posturing. There is this weird self lacerating instinct among some in the United Kingdom to believe everything that comes out of the eu bloc and nothing that is said by our own government and representatives. Some of this is not true. The suggestion that we need some paperwork to have some kind of negotiation as rachel said, that was a big gap there. There have been publications of brexit papers. Its about what is in them. You are having your own meta debate. Oh, i dont like that paperwork. Historically, this reminds me of the empire. There was a difference. The british were in control. For example, india was going to become a republic. Backley and churchill wrote begging letters staying in the near iooiti, wrote begging letters staying in the near room, stay. They created then the commonwealth which is an imaginary club. The queen has no power in india or the various republics are formed. The british arent used to walking away. They like to be liked. They like to feel they are morally superior, that is they are morally superior, that is the basis of their war, we are morally right. What the eu is not giving them is enough of that reassurance , giving them is enough of that reassurance, that feeling that we can create a club somehow and have links with the eu of a certain kind, but yes we are outside it. What is interesting is labours walk back. Now we have some differentiation between the two main parties and it creates an interesting opportunity for debate. Corbyn, for so many people is hard to stomach as much as he has a huge following. He is a polarising figure, as is theresa may. Now his party straddling these different worlds. That distinction is interesting. Corbyn, until he became leader at least, used to say that the eu was a stitch up, done in the interest of big business and big banks. Hes not completely wrong. Then he becomes the leader of a party that is fastly more pro eu then he is. He is sort of mumbling and going on with his position. Keir starmer, whose position is different, it goes almost unsaid that there is this gulf between him and his leader. Does anyone think that there are moderate voices in europe who are not being heard in this debate . To alexs point, there will be posturing, this is part of a negotiating process and there are probably negotiating process and there are pro ba bly lots negotiating process and there are probably lots of reasonable people behind the scenes who want to strike a deal with britain because it is in everyones interests, in terms of trade in harmony. The only way to give britain to good deal, is that other countries might want it as well. They have to keep the union together. If they have too many getaway causes, other countries will wa nt getaway causes, other countries will want it. Is that the eu worry . Getaway causes, other countries will want it. Is that the eu worry7m you had a friend who was in a relationship and they wanted to leave, but were afraid to do so because of the consequences of what would happen, what would you advise them to do . That has no substance. If you are a member of a club, then obviously you want the perks to be better than they would be if you we re better than they would be if you were outside the club. Nobody in that club will want to see someone leap that club and have the same benefits, and that is what i meant by the rhetorical gap. That position is the eu position and that is consistent with what they are saying. They are constantly saying, look, things cant be the same for you. Im going to pause it there because guess what . We will be talking about this a lot in many weeks to come. The next stage of the reading of the bill is in the Uk Parliament on thursday, said there may be more next week. Thank you on all of that is now, but there will be more to come. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are the highest theyve been for years. The United Nations condemned as outrageous north koreas firing of a Ballistic Missile over japan a few days ago. President trump said all options were then on the table, and today we learn that the us and south korea have agreed in a phone call to strengthen seouls missile programme, and that donald trump approved the sale of billions of dollars worth of military equipment to the south. Jeffrey, the firing of the missile over hakkaido was a worrying escalation . We have talked about ratcheting it up we have talked about ratcheting it upafew we have talked about ratcheting it up a few times, but this is ratcheting it up again . These are frightening times. If you live in that peninsula, these are terrifying times. What we have are two schoolyard bullies, king john warner and trump. What we need is diplomacy. No one is going to win this, we know that. Ultimately the us will triumph, should this, we know that. Ultimately the us willtriumph, should it this, we know that. Ultimately the us will triumph, should it get to that horrific scenario, but its not one we can allow to happen. We have to bring it back and find a way to allow the sides to save face enough to dial this down. If that means the us pull back a bit on their military exercises, somehow we have to get north korea in its insanity to stop firing these missiles and say ok, you can save firing these missiles and say ok, you can save face. Firing these missiles and say ok, you can save face. The problem is it now looks like extortion. The sanctions that were passed in early august by the un are crippling against iron, oran august by the un are crippling against iron, or an seafood and other exports from north korea. 25 Million People with the average income of about 1000 us a year. They need the sanctions lifted. Be duly elected president of the United States and the Third Generation of a dictator who has this map who has systematically. I take your point, but the fact is we have a president in the us, this has gone on through obama, through bush, bill clinton, it goes right back to richard nixon, this belligerence we are seeing out of north korea. They have managed to contain it. The policy, like we have seen contain it. The policy, like we have seenin contain it. The policy, like we have seen in the cold war is one of containment. If ruby belligerence of a duly elected us president , and we can talk about that another time, if belligerence meets belligerence, are we going to be better off . The point is, why is keen on doing it . He has seen is, why is keen on doing it . He has seen saddam and gaddafi, two very bad dictators, no question about it, not having nuclear weapons, removed. There is at some stage some big oceans that need to take place and china is crucial to this to make sure that whatever your regime is, and of course you were not elected like the american system, but we dont want to remove you from power. How you do that is the crucial thing and the more belligerent talk there is one trump, it becomes more difficult to get that. Its interesting to see the effect it has had on japan. You interesting to see the effect it has had onjapan. You look at the country, and whatever you think of the geopolitics of those nations, they are now looking out for the first time they have raised the possibility of installing pre emptive missile capacity. That isa pre emptive missile capacity. That is a really big dealfor a country that constitutionally has been disinclined to do anything like that since the second world war. Its a really big change and of course, they are now having drills in a way that it must be very terrifying for the population, and there is a guardian story about this today. They have 600,000 northern koreans living injapan, a lot of them descendants of former prisoners and the tension being caused in the country itself between those two groups, is it is having terrible ramifications for the country as well and i do think that that is where the belligerence is really unhelpful. Lets get back to how we get to any form of negotiation. I have lost count of the number of academics, diplomats i have interviewed who say it is about diplomacy, you have to get them around the table, but no one is coming up with an answer. You are seeing a two track narrative. On one hand the president with his belligerence and the people very close to him, tillerson, the secretary of state and others in the cabinet, being much more diplomatic and giving a different story. Thats exactly what nixon did with russia and china in his triangulation policy and kissinger had negotiations, notwithstanding the fa ct negotiations, notwithstanding the fact that the president was pumping the table. There is a rationale here. Maybe people dont want to see because they dont like president trump, maybe they see it. But chairman ultimately, this is about buying them off and working out what the prices, as compared to the fact that the people that have been most resistant is the north koreans. They have acquired the technology to have Nuclear Capacity and attack others. Not that they will do it in some mad act of self destruction, but it is to raise the sta kes destruction, but it is to raise the stakes in the game. Its about self preservation. North korea, its much more complex than german unification was. This economy has beenin unification was. This economy has been in the decrepit state for so long and china has so much interest in not seeing an outcome that ultimately makes a unifying korea with a western allies. There are all things at play in terms of the chess game in that region. We will post it there for now. We have met here with us. I have to ask you, football. Even i know that the transfer window closed this week and the figures we re closed this week and the figures were astronomical. Its a new record. What is going on here . There is more money available. The premier league, which is the best run, most successful league in the world in money terms, they did a deal a year ago, 8. 4 billion. More importantly, the money is going down to clubs that dont expect to be in the premier league, like bournemouth, who now have more money to spend. Britain has allowed a free market so most of the Top Premier League clubs are owned by foreigners. Manchester city is owned by the united arab emirates. Like america, it doesnt believe in socialism, but it does believe in socialism, but it does believe in socialism, but it does believe in sporting socialism, we allow everyone to come in. They see this as branding exercises and as faras this as branding exercises and as far as they are concerned, most of the money is going abroad. In the old days, there used to be reaganite trickle down economic. The big clubs pay the Lower Division clubs. Now they pay all sorts of foreign clubs. The only thing if they can get into the premier league and brand themselves, look at what has happened by psg. They are owned by the qatar state. They paid 86 million for neymar. Maybe that is a solution for kim. Perhaps if the paid for neymar and they could say that north korea has a great footballer. If only i am a fan of the best club in the United Kingdom, ipswich town. We have secured a new striker from ipswich town. We have secured a new strikerfrom rangers, ipswich town. We have secured a new striker from rangers, so ipswich town. We have secured a new strikerfrom rangers, so we have done our part it does seem that when other clubs see that an english clu b when other clubs see that an english club is making an acquisition, the price goes up. People can pay more, so they do. We play exciting football and that is what is a sign of success. When people say that the sums are obscene, are we just wringing our hands . There is nothing we can do about it, it is the new world order. Much of neymars money we nt world order. Much of neymars money went to his father. These players, because of the money they earn, they are corporate entities. They can employ the best lawyers, agents and because of the way that football works, the agents also the recruiters. But what about smaller clu bs, recruiters. But what about smaller clubs, grassroots . This is what is wrong with the 21st century economy. This kind of polarisation of wealth, they are given a lot of money, but £30 million, 35 million, it isjust ludicrous. As we sit around a table at the bbc, lets not pretend its just football that has a problem with salaries. Thats what i said. The americans have done it better. They disclose more details about players salaries. The germans insist that 51 of the club is owned inside their own country. We have owners now who have no connection. Abramowitz has never given an interview. At the end of the day, foot ball interview. At the end of the day, football is meant to be a community sports. If the owners are somebody you have never heard of, theyjust come in by the club, what is their purpose in doing it . There we are. We attempted to solve geopolitical problems through football. Thank goodness you manage to do that for us. Lovely to have you all here. Much more to discuss same time, same place next week. Thank you for being with us. Goodbye. There is a lot of fine weather out there right now, but the weather is not going to hold or through the weekend. If you can, enjoy the days sunny weather. This is the window of opportunity we have right now, but look at the cloud rolling off of the atlantic. That will be across the uk tomorrow and there will be rain around as well. In the short term, lots of sunny spells around. Its not a sunny day because they were the cloud will be building and a couple of showers will develop across the extreme south east. Look at that, just on the edge of the forecast area, rain nudging into the far, far west of Northern Ireland a little bit later this afternoon. For england and wales it will stay dry, almost completely dry because here kent, sussex, maybe in the southwark and norfolk, maybe the chance of one of the shower clouds developing in the afternoon. Fine weather tonight across central and eastern areas and then the rain marches in. Most of then the rain marches in. Most of the rain should not be too heavy as it moves in. It might be heavy across the heels of wales and for a time in some of the and cities across the west, but this weather front will move slowly eastwards and also as it does so, some of that rain will rain itself out, so the weather front will fall apart and we will be left with a big area of cloud with troops and drabs of rain on and off throughout the afternoon. Rather than a wet soaking afternoon, it will be damp with rain on and off. Eastern areas may stay dry, but it will cloud over. It will also become cooler. 16 degrees most of us. During sunday evening you will see how this patchy rain moves towards the east and even some Western Areas might try out towards the second half of sunday. In the next week, looking cloudy, a little on the unsettled side with rain on and off. Today is the best bet. Tomorrow, a chance of rain. Goodbye. This is bbc news. The headlines. More flooding feared in south asia. 1,400 people have been killed and 40 million left homeless or displaced. This flood water is absolutely disgusting. The first thing that happens is the drains back up and you get a toxic stew a toxic stew of waste in the water. Paying for road closures, new proposals to charge Utility Companies by the hour for roadworks which cause disruption. Also in the next hour, the us counts the cost of Tropical Storm harvey. President Trump Tells Congress he wants £6 billion to start tackling the flooding in texas and louisiana. He flies in to visit the state later this afternoon. A Grammar School in orpington backs down after trying to force out children who got b grades instead of as