On the queens sandringham estate in norfolk. Pope francis has renewed his call for peace in the middle east. In his traditional christmas address, he urged israel and the palestinians to continue to work towards a peaceful two state solution. Next on bbc news, brexitcast, a special tv version of the bbcs popular brexitcast podcast. Bbc correspondents adam fleming, chris mason, Laura Kuenssberg and katya adler reflect on the behind the scenes twists and turns of the negotiations between the eu and the uk. Were doing a special this is a twist on the usual podcast, normally into your ears only and instead, welcome and thanks for watching on the bbc news channel and bbc world news to a special brexitcast with an invited audience. Brexitcast from bbc 5 live and bbc news. Brexit means brexit. Breaking up is hard. The people voted, and they have to get on with it. I think brexit is going to be a wonderful thing. I have to say this is a tough negotiating process which i can only describe as a dogs brexit. Brexit means brexit, but what does brexit mean . Oh, what did you think of thejingle . Its magnificent, darling. Lets focus on the big picture, where are we on the seemingly never ending Brexit Process . Big picture it is Christmas Party season at downing street and as were recoding it is the Christmas Party at downing street, and forjournalists and officials this evening, and their Christmas Party because, after all the angst of the last few months, after the frustrations, their difficulties, all of the wrangles at a cost for theresa may, last week at the end of the week she got her piece of paper, she was able to come home and say yes, phase one is over. Now, does that solve the contradictions we have discussed on the programme . Does it mean the problems have gone away . Does it mean anything other than for number ten thank goodness they got to this stage . Not really. But that in and of itself, given the divisions in the tory party, the divisions in the types of approach between the uk and eu that is an achievement for a Prime Minister who lost her majority down the back of a sofa not long ago. And she has been applauded. Yeah. And i have to say that in the eu there is a real sight of relief, actually, and it is not that it is one of those occasions where it is an eu summit where she walks out the door and they all say did you see what. Did you see what she did. I will do that many times over the next few months. They didnt do it this time. They were like, oh my god, you know, they took about someone who has a couple of cojones and they think she has found a way out of a tough situation. They were so taken aback by the dup phone call she received while in brussels just a few days before and the people in the room describe it in such awestruck tones, like, we saw her as if her government was going to crumble around her, you know, they were so taken by that. The fact that she could turn that around by, lets face it, we will hear about ireland later, kicking that famous can down the road, but the fact we have a real sight of relief, you know, i was still calling people yesterday on sunday asking for the dirt, and i am amazed they take my calls on sunday. I was marching in the countryside on the phone talking about, i was saying, attitude towards the uk, negative . No, they are sort of feeling buoyed by what happened. Interesting in the press Conference Last Week on friday when Jean Claude Juncker came out with tusk to deliver the news to say sufficient progress has been made and he was falling over himself to be nice. Yeah. She was tough, smart, polite negotiator, you know. It is awful, isnt it . Who in the audience has got a juncker impression for later . Dangerous territory. I think, last week the monday to friday to monday to friday made me think that actually this process isjust going to be like this, and it is something ministers have been saying for ages, it isjust going to be like this, it will be really hard and we are going to go from the top of the himalayas down to 20,000 leagues under the sea and then i think for that process, it is going to be like that. Also, in this feeling that we are progressing, which definitely you feel. We are going back to the same rhetoric from right at the beginning which is brussels saying we need to hear from the uk what they want, which is what we heard at the beginning of phase one. We are back again there now. The mood music is different, positive, can do and yet they are saying we want a deal with you guys but you have to come back to us with a clear idea of what you want. They are focused on today and tomorrow without believing they are going to get the answer. And you know how i celebrate . It doesnt involve the pub. I got stuck in a lift with 18 otherjournalists. Only for a couple of minutes, but it felt like a couple of hours. Is that fake news . No, it is real. What was the conversation . It was, how long are we going to be in here . Were you waiting for key moments or was it afterwards . It was after everything happened. What happens is that there are bits of the building that was on lockdown, we went to the ground floor, which was locked down. I tried to lighten the mood by asking everyone what donald tusks favourite Christmas Movie was. To lighten the tension. It didnt really work. Remind me not to invite you to play in new years eve party. We have our First Special brexitcast christmas treat for you all. As you know i have a deep and special relationship with Michel Barnier, the eus chief negotiator. Do you have it with him or at him . He probably avoids all corridors. No, as you will see, my colleagues have made a special barnier bantz video. Very good. By the time we get to march 2019, he is going to be running away from you. The other day when we arrived, i was the first person and he shook my hand because i think he was relieved. That it was you . No, that the whole historical process was reaching a milestone. Now, shall we get into our questions from the floor from our fantastic assembly of brexitcasters who have come along . Thank you for doing that. Lets see if we can get the microphone to sally. Fire away. Thanks having us. On thursdays question time, Professor Robert winston said there was a minor chance brexit wouldnt happen. Without considering the likelihood of it, how would or could this practically happen, or not happen . That sounds like a question for an editor. As he said, i think it is very unlikely, dont forget both of the parties voted for article 50 and the process to make it happen. The process to start the clock ticking. I suppose you can see a situation, if there was a sudden and very clear reversal of Public Opinion, which might be the type of thing which would come about is something serious happened to the economy or some huge bust up in the talks or all kind of things that we cannot imagine right now, but you would see some scenario that would really have to change Public Opinion and only in that case would you see any other politicians in either the labour party or the tory party feel that it was the thing to say hold on, lets have another think about this. From the uk perspective, the Eu Referendum was not legally binding. It happened and it has become political reality, but it is not legally binding. Article 50 is legally binding, we have started the formal process and after two years, unless there is a unanimous vote, it would be uk plus the 27 Member States and the European Parliament could vote to extend the negotiating period, but otherwise in march 2019, the uk leaves. Up until that point, the uk can change its mind. After that point, when there is talk about you can vote in the 2020 election on the brexit deal, we are out. Britain can vote and decide what it likes, but actually we have left the European Union at that stage, and we would have to apply to come back in. If we are talking in theory rather than practice or likelihood, were there to be this huge event that everybody, including the eu, there is a feeling that in the uk there is a conspiracy to keep the uk in, whoever you talk to on the european political field would love the uk to stay, believes the uk is leaving. Say there was this amazing reversal, under what circumstances would we come back . Because, actually, again when you talk to the commission they say we can change our mind while in the article 50 process but by launching it we have lost everything that we have gained, if you like. That means the rebate, not signing up to the euro and all of that. That would be really intriguing from an academic point of view. Where does brexit sit on the conversations in the European Union, when there are so much else that they need to talk about . We care about brexit and talk about it all the time, how much is brexit the dominating conversation in brussels . This will make us feel bad. I think it dominates more time than they would like to admit. Jean Claude Juncker a few months ago said. No, i wont do my imitation. He said from now on we will dedicate 15 minutes per day to brexit and no more. This is not the case. It is just not the case. The uk is a very big member state, and we are leaving and that has implications for the whole of the rest of the eu. Early in 2017 there was this feeling of, this is awful, we are going to dust ourselves down and be stronger forward. We are going to be more unified than ever, we are not. Those cracks will show in phase two, because they are not unified about the kind of deal that they want to have or prepared to have with the united kingdom. In all of this, saying that brexit is a big deal, they have other big issues, the future of the European Union and what will happen to Angela Merkel because germany is so key. I think these are really sort of big issues for them and plus what is really interesting to me as a europhile is that all the new alliances that are forming inside the eu. We have gone, who are our traditional allies . Ireland, denmark, sweden, the baltic states, who are they now making friends with . The assumption that is that we go and germany and become stronger, and i think a lot of these eurosceptic countries are banding together. You mention germany, where is nina . Obviously, you are an expert in german. By being german i think that the public is not actually that interested in it. They thought it was a disastrous thing, but for those who are interested, the german interpretation of the eu is, here are the laws, you tell us which ones you want, and then we will decide what model you get. The entire process of anything getting here to face on being completed from the german perspective, they were bemused by it. It is like, why isnt theresa may honest with her public . These are the liabilities she has to pay. This is what the uk signed up to. I think they were slightly bemused about it, but where it is quite feisty is in some of the comment pieces. I think there was one recently where a very famous german comment author wrote that this is the stupidest political decision since nero decided to make his horse the consul. In the bild newspaper, the most widely read newspaper it said bye bye blighty. I think the germans are rather bemused. They find it quite cute, the royal family and so on. But they think they have this weird culture of exceptionalism, which on one hand they like the brits, but on the other hand, they dont quite get them. Where is madeleine . Whats the situation with you . My husband is irish. We have two kids, seven and two, and we always thought we would get them irish passports. We are now seriously considering putting in the application. We havent quite bought a house in dublin. We are getting there. Why are you thinking of doing that . We see ourselves as european and them as european and the idea of leaving the eu and feeling out of europe is incomprehensible and we dont want to live in a little england, we want to live in the eu. You are sitting next to someone who might be bristling, Darren Grimes from brexit central. I see myself as european. What i dont see myself as being part of this european superstate. The united kingdom, global britain, Boris Johnsons treatise in the telegraph is the sort of vision i think the uk should be going for. It is hard not to stress how important the brexit war Cabinet Meeting was, and it will change for generations the history, the track of this country and what it goes down, and i think i should be a path in which we have an independent trade policy and get out into the world because that is where the growth is. Madeleine is not bristling. Lam bristling inside. My husband told me not to be too vocal. Oh, come on it is Tony Connelly from rte, come on up looks like a chat show now. Tony, you are the europe editor for rte, the irish public broadcaster, and you were quite a necessary part of the process a couple of weeks ago. Remind us what happened. Unless you dont want to talk about it. Yes, i am happy to talk about it. The day that theresa may came to brussels for lunch withJean Claude Juncker it had been around four days of fraught negotiations between the british, irish and eu officials about the deal on the irish border. The Irish Government was quite downbeat on monday morning. But nobody knew about the deal. Mid morning i was able to get sight of part of the deal, part of the text on ireland, and i got a second source to confirm the text. I put out two tweets, rte ran the story, the first tweet said there would be no regulatory divergences, according to a draft seen by rte news, followed up four minutes later saying no regulatory divergences be changed to continued regulatory alignment. These are quite wonky phrases for people i understand, but theyre important to the irish process. My understanding is the dup saw that story coming from me, assumed i had been briefed by the Irish Government, that the Irish Government was somehow claiming victory in the process, and i think at that point a certain discontent in the dup had built up and exploded. And that seems to have brought the whole text crashing down. At that moment, to put it politely, all heck broke loose. And then meps came on the record saying the same thing. They said on tape the uk government has conceded. And a nerdy question in your direction, tony, how freaked out is ireland by brexit and the potential ramifications for ireland if it doesnt turn out as dublin might want . And is it all solved . No. Freaked out, yeah, on a scale of freaked outness, we are out the top, it is the good friday agreement, the peace process, the hugely integrated economy between ireland and the uk, vast volumes of agri food, a hard brexit will hurt ireland badly. It will also affect the border, which is now back in irish politics, which is a real tragedy, because it was gone from irish politics for 20 years since the good friday agreement, so it is a huge worry. Matt is in the audience. Now, matt, you work in number ten, you are from Northern Ireland, and you were on with brexitcast a couple of weeks ago talking about this, so have the government been surprised, were they too late, or was it always a problem that was bubbling away in the basement and they thought they could come to it later on . It is true to say before the referendum in 2016 and then for the first six to ten months post referendum period the irish issues, the entire island, as tony talked about, Northern Ireland specifically and the issues affecting the whole island, they were not front and centre of the debate, and the downing street agenda is often driven by what is at the top of the news agenda. It wasnt that people did not take it seriously. But the Irish Government made a decision, as tony knows, to drive it front to the news agenda to get peoples attention. And we picked up, talking to members of the Irish Government, but also some elements, people who come to visit from Northern Ireland, the feeling that downing street didnt understand, they felt this is notjust an economic issue, but also political and very much a social issue. The fact that talk of the border disappeared and now it is back front and centre. And real concern about that and real worry that it wasnt being taken on board. And i think the rest of the eu was tempted, even though they said from the beginning this has to be one of the main divorce issues, it was always around, i think they were willing to let it slide a little bit into phase two as the uk government wanted. But the Irish Government made sure that didnt happen. This will stay now, right until the end. I know ireland doesnt like it said that it has veto, but it does have a veto. It is an implied veto. If it is good enough for dublin, it is good enough for the rest of the eu. Will donnelly, whats your question . Will britain get brexit in anything other than name . We have davisproof and brexino, the people who are dubbed brexinos by tory colleagues, those who have been complaining and amending and trying to change the legislation, thats what the cabinet is trying to figure out today and tomorrow, so at the moment we dont know. One member of cabinet said to me ten days ago, well, we may end up like norway, paying a lot of money to pretend we are not in the eu. Or it may well be that the brexiteer side of the argument wins the debate and of course it does notjust depend on them but it also depends what the eu is ready to give way or compromise on in the negotiations. The eu compromised a bit. Do you think we will get it in anything but name . I think we will leave but will go from the position to half in to half out. Thumbs up or thumbs down . Disgraceful. Because we voted to leave the eu and become an independent self governing nation and i think that we are seeing is the great brexit betrayal is happening before our very eyes. Where is