13/07/2017 This Week

Launch control, this is Houston, we are go for launch.

There have been launches before, and relaunches.

The clock is running. Houston, we have cleared the studio.

But is Team May flying high, or high and dry?

If only it was just about the blastoff.

Then I take the controls and I steer it around for a nice soft

Only a clean, hard Brexit will ensure all our safety.

A disagreement? How about an awkward coalition to sort it out? Houston,

we have a problem. I have been telling you so four-year is.

The Apollo 13 spacecraft is apparently losing breathing oxygen.

The emergency has ruled out any chance of a lunar landing.

Strap yourselves in, take a good swig of rocket fuel.

The PM said she did when she heard the exit poll on election night.

I suspect there's a bit of British understatement in that.

I wouldn't be surprised if she bawled her eyes out.

After all, having gone from hero to zero in only one

disastrous election campaign, that would be a pretty

But perhaps even the Mark II version of the MayBot has yet to perfect

I'm sure the Mark III version will gush like Niagara Falls.

The Labour leader and his merry band of Corbynistas have been crying

tears of joy since the exit poll, even though they lost.

But politics is not really about the crying game.

And we now live in a political culture in which one week

you're cock of the walk, next week you're a feather duster.

Mr Corbyn needs to find a way of provoking a snap election

this side of Christmas, to capitalise on his

If the May Government can stumble on into 2018,

it's by no means clear who would then have

Speaking of those whose stumbling from pillar to post would bring

tears to a glass eye, I'm joined on the sofa

tonight by two political has-beens whose careers have

I speak, of course, of Ed #dancingqueen Balls

Michael, your moment of the week. On the issue you touched upon as to

whether there might be another general election in 2017, the

Government learned this week, not to get 's a prize but it will have been

a joke, that Labour will not be supporting the first stage known as

the second reading of the withdrawal from the European Union Bill. There

must be a question as to whether it will get the bill through that first

stage, and almost no question that the bill will thereafter be

massively amended. Since there is also no doubt that this bill is the

flagship of the legislation of the Government, if it is not able to get

through with that, it would be very close to having lost the confidence

of the House of Commons. So I think that was an important moment. We

will come back to that and discuss why you are wrong. Ed Balls, your

moment of the week will stop the admission by Donald Trump Jr,

through the e-mails he published, that he not only responded to a

Russian inspired contact saying they had information which would damage

Hillary Clinton, but also involved the campaign manager for Donald

Trump and his brother-in-law in the meeting. It is hard to believe his

klaxon was not sounding. If you were a politician, you would know. But

that terrible combination of arrogance and naivete, arrogance to

think you can do what you like and naivete not to see what an

incredibly stupid thing it was to have a meeting... Amateur hour at

Trump Tower. Who would have thought back in January that we would be

having a real conversation today about who could go more quickly in

the next 12 months, Theresa May or Donald Trump? I am not sure what the

betting stakes are but I think it is quite tight. The e-mail he was

bonded to said, this information we want to give you is part of the

Russian government's support to get you elected. That was the real bit

in neon sign that should have been a warning. The President says he was

not involved, but his son involved his closest aide, Jared Kushner, and

the campaign manager. It was unbelievably reckless and I think we

may find out worse than that. We shall see. It has certainly been the

first real development of substance in this story.

Now, Labour peer Andrew Adonis has attacked the greed, as he puts it,

of senior academics who pay themselves huge salaries.

I don't think he appreciates the hard work and dedication

of professors of media studies who chart, analyse, archive

and chronicle every segment, every interview, every beautifully

crafted monologue, every film of the state-of-the-art

Courses are still available at Scunthorpe University

for a tenner a week and all the curry you can eat.

Speaking of beer, here's Nigel Farage, in a pub,

Project Fear is back with a vengeance and it's

MPs and Lords want to keep us shackled to the customs union

and to the single market, a so-called soft Brexit.

A soft Brexit will mean the bureaucrats governing us

for generations to come, taking away our sovereignty

Luckily, we have a Prime Minister who is committed

Proper Brexit, liberation from the customs union

Unluckily, the outcome of Mrs May's election gamble means that she now

has Remoaners on her own backbenches who would like to prevent

the will of the people, so she's had to turn

Trouble is, although Corbyn is an old Bennite Leaver,

the Shadow Brexit Secretary keeps talking about perhaps staying

in the customs union and the single market,

and most of the backbench is actually still strongly

The point is, the public voted in a free and fair

And I'll tell you something, if it's not delivered,

Our politicians are going to make a pig's ear of their own reputations

and we're going to get egg on our face on the global stage.

And Nigel Farage has managed to stagger from

the Westminster Arms to our arms in our Westminster studios.

Thank you. Are you worried that the election result, how it came out,

means that Brexit might not now happen? No, Brexit will happen, we

will leave the European Union. The question is, will we leave in name

only? Of course I am worried about Parliamentary arithmetic. I'm even

more worried about the EU chief negotiator this week taking a very

different line yesterday. And today, meeting Sturgeon, meeting Corbyn,

clearly playing a game of divide and draw. But he did not say anything

after the meetings. He didn't need to. He has to see them, surely. He

has to see the Leader of the Opposition because if there is a

snap election, Mr Corbyn will be heading the negotiations. I don't

think he had to see any of them. It does no harm, really. The next time

Mrs May or David Davis gets up and says, this is where the negotiations

are, party leaders will say, he told us something different. Sophy Ridge

has driven quite a wedge today in the Brexit negotiations. -- he has

driven quite a wedge. The EU negotiations are getting tougher and

harder but President Macron thinks he has a better chance pinching the

City's business than taking it to Paris, whether that is realistic or

not. Because the government is divided, Parliament is divided,

there is a question about how you would get it through the House of

Commons, through the House of Lords. With such division and weakness on

the British side, why would the European Union give any concessions?

And the economy is slowing. Living standards are being squeezed, the

pound is weak. Brexit talks could soon be in crisis. Is there not a

danger that public opinion could turn against Leave? At the moment,

public opinion wants the job done. But the idea that people voted for a

hard Brexit is just aren't true. Many people on the Leave campaign

were saying they wanted to stay in the single market. No, they weren't,

that is baloney. Who said that? I think there were people in the Leave

campaign. Every player on both Remainer and leaves could not have

been clearer that a vote to leave was a vote to leave the single

market also. No one was in doubt about that. I don't think that is

what the public heard. I think they heard leaving and "Leaving". The

point I was going to make was that since the general election we have

started to hear the business voice, which was absent in the election

campaign, saying, OK, we are going to leave, but if you leave and leave

means leaving the customs union, or most of the single market, the

impact that would have on jobs and investment and bureaucracy, more

regulation, not less, would be disastrous for jobs and investment.

There is a phrase going back many centuries, don't cut off your nose

to spite your face. I fear that Nigel is trying to cut off the nose

of the nation by demanding and putting the Prime Minister in a

position where unless she delivers an impossible thing, she will have

failed. What is impossible? To have a Brexit which does not involve a

financial contribution, because there will have to be a financial

contribution. The argument is about size. Exactly. But if we are to have

an ongoing, sensible relationship which means we do not end up with

bigger regulatory burdens, we need mechanisms to manage our trade and

regulatory relations with the European Union. If those are called

by Nigel bureaucracy and we break from that entirely, in the end, you

end up breaking away from our main trading partner and piling extra

regulation and cost on British business. It is a great big world

out there. Why you talk about the 15% of the globe's GDP as the be all

and end all is beyond me. Lets not fight the referendum again. That's

look at where we are now. The problem is that corporate Britain is

organised. The same people that campaign for us to join the euro are

now campaigning to stay in the customs union. There is not a voice

of opposition. We saw this when the CBI wanted Britain to join the

pound. We desperately need British business... Hang on. We are not

going to refight the referendum. We are not going to refight the Battle

of whether we should join the euro or not. Please, be quiet. Just be

quiet. Is there not a sense of drift? The head of the National

Audit Office, an independent body, respected senior civil servant, says

the government is putting a successful Brexit at risk by failing

to show active and energetic leadership.

Michel Barnier said this week, I hear the clock ticking, and he's

right. We did that and gathered, -- we delete and dallied, we've wasted

time with a general election that didn't work, so yes I am worried. He

says nobody can show him a plan for Brexit and he's the head of the

National Audit Office. I am concerned, and perhaps it gets back

to Theresa May. How can you have somebody leading the whole of this

was still clearly doesn't believe in it? You don't think she is in

favour? She was asked four times in that interview by Paxman, did she

now agree with Brexit? I don't know a single leading Tory Eurosceptic

who agrees with you. They are worried about Mr Hammond, the

Chancellor, they are worried about Amber Rudd and a number of other

people in the Cabinet who they don't think their hearts are in it, but

not one of them has ever expressed any doubts... I would say that some

of the Eurosceptics in the Cabinet are quite worried about the

inflexibility of her positions. It's too hard line? And I think that will

cost her the job. Let me come back to your moment of the week, because

it's clear that Labour will mount a guerrilla war against the Brexit

legislation in Parliament. They need, and they hope to provoke an

early election. I don't disagree with that. But the Tory side is

going to stay solid on this, because they don't want another early

election, and there are a sizeable number of pro-Brexit Labour rebels.

You add them to the DUP and a whipped Tory party and the

government is always likely to get a majority. Well, the government may

get through second reading... You said it might not I'm saying, if you

look at the Parliamentary arithmetic, how does it lose? You

take a whipped Tory party that will be reunited, you act in the DUP and

there are 20 odd Labour Brexiteers will vote. You will -- how will they

lose? And then there are 100 amendments... And then the bill, as

amended, has to be amended again by the government to get it back. On

fundamental amendments, they will still be able to count on that

alliance of Labour Brexiteers, DUP and the Conservatives. I doubt it,

because there will be argued that what is a fundamental Amendment. I

think on particular issues, as they start to arrive, as we saw this

week, suddenly that hard majority for Brexit starts to have some

doubts when there's arguments are made. In the last 24 hours, you now

have Conservative chairs of the select committees for Treasury and

foreign affairs, as well as death row, Labour chairs of Brexit and

home affairs and business, all of whom disagree with Nigel's hard

Brexit vision and want something. -- as well as Defra. Real Brexit! We

voted to leave! You are worried about Parliament. I am. I am

concerned, actually more about amendments getting through. I'm

concerned that a gradual watering down and the government falling on

this. But your point is right. The political class are fighting back

very hard. All I can say is, if we reach a period at the end of 2019 at

the end of all of this when we really haven't got Brexit, I think

we are going to see a backlash the likes of which we may never have

seen. Maybe, for your side of the argument, your best hope is that Mrs

May will show steely determination on this, because her only hope of

not going down in the history books as a total failure, which is what

she would at the moment if there was to be an election in September, is

to secure a successful Brexit deal. If she doesn't do that, she is not a

success. I think it's very hard indeed for her to be a serious

negotiator with Europe. It will be very hard not to have a general

election before the final deal is done, and the Conservatives would be

much better at using another leader, probably David Davis, a Brexiteer

who is ready to make compromises. This debate will unfold in the next

year and people will have to realise that, to get a Brexit in the

national interest which protects jobs and investment, they'll have to

ignore Nigel Farage and his extreme arguments... Oh, please! 52% of

people voted for it. You may not like it and I tell you what... You

can fight for it all you like. In the grip of corporate Britain and

their pay, you can fight as hard as you like, but the fact is, if we

have a second referendum, it will be a bigger majority. We have run out

of time on this. We've overrun on this. We need to move on. Nigel

Farage, thank you. Now, it's late - cuddle and a cry

with Philip May late. But if, like the Prime Minister,

you'd rather not hear about the 2017 general election ever again,

fear not, because waiting in the wings is comedian

Richard Herring, here to put So go Facebonkers,

Snapcrazy and Twitterrific. You can even bring your

Instagranny for all we care. So, Mrs May moved into

Downing Street a year ago today. Well, happy anniversary,

Prime Minister. Though to paraphrase the Japanese

emperor after the Americans dropped the second atom bomb on his country,

recent events have not developed We were going to throw

you a party but the DUP said it As teetotal Presbyterians they

weren't that keen on parties anyway. We bought you a cake

but Boris Johnson ate it. We invited the whole

of the Parliamentary party and your two former closest

advisers, Lady Macbeth and Rasputin. So we had no idea how

much Blue Nun to order. It's always been lonely at the top

but this is solitude of a new order. Here's Sky's Beth Rigby

with her round up of the week. Prosecco price wars,

Wimbledon wash-outs and mutinous mutterings

about the party leadership. All we need now is a hosepipe

ban to know that summer Well, that means one thing - it's

time for the This Week summer party! It wouldn't be a party

without the This Week marquee. The big tents are all

the rage these days. The Prime Minister had

a relaunch this week, promising to throw the Tory tent

flaps wide in an attempt to deliver But Jeremy Corbyn's in no mood

to play happy campers. If the Prime Minister would like it,

I'm very happy to furnish her with a copy of our election

manifesto or, better still, an early election in order

that the people of this But it looks like the PM's

fluffy relaunch has been Hey, somebody's been pulling out

the pegs of the big tent! MPs on both sides of the House

are still smarting from an election marked by personal

abuse and intimidation. And the Prime Minister has now

called for an investigation, as MPs What is different about what is

happening at this election, in which I was subjected

to anti-Semitic abuse, my staff were spat at,

my boards and property were attacked, is that it has been

politically motivated, and the elephant in the room

here is it has been motivated by the language of some

of our political leaders. Now they press a button and you read

violent abuse which, 30 years ago, people would have been frightened

to even write down. So I accept that male

politicians get abuse too, but I hope the one thing we can

agree on in this chamber If it's good enough

for the Beckhams. Thanks, Liz, I'll have milk

and two sugars, please. # Well, my idea of heaven

is a nice cup of tea...# Well, Michel Barnier's proven

a tough nut to crack in those David Davis meanwhile admitted

that the two-year deadline Yes, I believe we can get a free

trade negotiation included, and the customs agreement

negotiation concluded in the period. What will be much more difficult,

however, is to get all the practical Not so much for us -

it will be quite tough to get our customs in the right place in two

years, but it's doable. But to get the French customs

in the same place in two years, or the Belgian or the Dutch customs,

I think will be a different issue. A major sticking point

is the divorce bill. Some reports put the figure at up

to 100 billion euros. Boris Johnson said the Government

would never pay that amount. The sums that I have seen

that they propose to demand from this country seem to me to be

extortionate, and I think go whistle would be an entirely

appropriate expression. The Prime Minister missed PMQs this

week to attend a state visit by the King of Spain,

where she tried to smile politely Damian Green stood in and clashed

with Emily Thornberry over the Government's

progress over Brexit. What does no deal actually

mean for our businesses, for our people and for issues such

as the Irish land border? So, can the First Secretary

address this question now - what does no deal look

like in practice? The First Secretary downplayed

the risk of no deal. Unemployment is now down

to its lowest level In the last week alone,

both the United States and Australia have said they would like to sign

trade deals with Britain So I'm happy to report to her that

negotiations are going well and that her fear of no deal

is probably overstated. Well, it's not exactly

been a textbook relaunch Even the National Audit Office has

weighed in, comparing her fragmented approach to Brexit

to a chocolate orange. But the Prime Minister was at least

trying to show her softer side. I knew the campaign

wasn't going perfectly, but still the messages I was getting

from people I was speaking to were that we were going to get

a better result than we did. The production team didn't make it

past the Beefeaters and they've Fernando, can you run

me to Annabel's? Our thanks to the palatial

Savoy Hotel for putting up with us. And with us now, the Telegraph's

Rosa Prince, who's written biographies about Theresa May

and Jeremy Corbyn, which means she's totally ill-qualifed to talk

about either of them. Is Theresa May capable of

reinventing herself? I think if you declare something a relaunch or

reinvention you've lost half the battle. In a way, she's in such a

political stalemate at the moment, a game of chess in which there is

nowhere for her to move, that she's just got to keep plugging away, keep

surviving. I think that's the best chance of survival, to do nothing,

to stay there, be the Prime Minister and let others work out anyway to

get rid of her. For the moment, they don't seem able to. She's been in

politics for decades. People know her but she's never really changed

from what we can see from the outside. How could she change now? I

thought question about shedding a tear was interesting, the way she

hesitated, groping around in her mind for a few seconds, thinking how

to play that one. I think, if she had succeeded in changing the

approach, if there had been an internal relaunch, she'd have dealt

with that question rather more deftly than she did. I think, on the

other hand, it's difficult for of us to appreciate the psychological

trauma that she has been through. To call the general election and to

lose the majority would be devastating. I'm quite puzzled about

how she gets up in the morning, to be honest. It must be absolutely

shocking, what she's been through. As you say, still to be there is, in

a sense, an achievement, but it doesn't necessarily suggest she'll

be there long. Can she reinvented herself? Once people are talking

about the relaunch, it's probably too late. To me, this feels quite

redolent of John Major after 1992, the cones Hotline... Gordon Brown.

And Tony Blair had his moments. Gordon Brown not signing the Treaty

on Lisbon, Iain Duncan Smith talking about being the quiet man, the point

when you almost have to claim a relaunch. She had one to the days

which was enriching out relaunch and today was an emotional one. I think

it's good to show the real hurt, but the problem she'll have is, you do a

relaunch, most people don't notice in the country and a week later

nothing 's changed, do you do a third or fourth relaunch? The

problem is, once it's set, it's really hard to shift things again.

She's clearly not going to lead her party into another general election,

so it makes you wonder, why does their image really matter? Surely if

she's not going to fight another general election, she should just

get on with the job. I think so. What brought her to this

position in the first place was that she was not the glittering David

Cameron type. This time last year, everyone rather liked that she was

quiet, understated, wasn't particularly good at talking to

people, and that did her quite well for ten months. It went horribly

wrong during the election. That was when the British people got to see

her. They thought they liked her but didn't really know her. The election

campaign gave her a chance to know her and they didn't like what they

saw. Perhaps the problem for her is that general elections need a

different type of person own band running the country. Now she is back

to running the country, if she can do her submarine act and submerge

for a bit... Hard to do as Prime Minister. Without a majority! Is she

a better Prime Minister than an election campaign? Probably.

Three-year, as you say, things were not going to badly. A few months ago

she was 20 points ahead of her political rival and appeared rather

popular. She was given credit for not being what David Cameron was,

overly talkative, launching half baked initiatives every day of the

week. She did none of that, but what a difference a month makes, all the

difference in the world. We were all shocked by what happened in the

election. None of us conceived that you could lose a 20% margin in 30

days. Imagine how shocked she is. Is Jeremy Corbyn, as leader of the

Labour Party, the same Jeremy Corbyn who was a far left rubble and

agitator? No. If you look at the pictures from PMQs, the collapse in

Mauro, standing and puff of Theresa May has been matched by a rise of

Jeremy Corbyn. There is more confidence, more projection. You

have to give him confidence as well for the way in which he has been

empathetic and inspired young people, talking about hope. The

issue now is whether he draws the right lesson. This is the first time

for 20 years you have a Labour leader who lost a general election

but has not gone straight into a leadership election. He now has got

to ask the question, what do I need to do as a leader to go from just

losing to winning? That is a discussion about policy and style.

He has to understand the concerns of some voters on Labour on the economy

and security. The question is will he draw the right lesson is, in the

way Neil Kinnock tried to after 1987? And he has not got to do that

while fighting a leadership election, so it is a big test for

him. If he has changed, why has he surrounded himself with the hard

left? How does that show he has changed? I think he has to broaden

his team. You would not have gone near these people. In this

situation, I would have broadened my Shadow Cabinet. But he hasn't. If he

ploughs on with a tight group, thinking more of the same will get

him the next step, I fear that will not work, but it is up to him. He

has to ask those questions in Mansfield, parts of Scotland, why

didn't Labour win? He has to understand the concerns and go and

talk to voters, not only those who come to his rallies. Compared to

three months ago, I think there is a chance he could do it, but it won't

happen unless he learns the right lessons from the last election. Has

Jeremy Corbyn changed? I don't think so. I think there was an ego hidden

in there all along that we have now all got to see. I think he enjoys it

and he has grown into it and he seems a bit more assured. I am

afraid I think that is what he needs to do, to reach out, but he won't.

He had those opportunities. He performed so much better than

anybody in the centre of the Labour Party, like Ed Balls, thought he

would. So much better. So much better than Theresa May. If an

election is caused by the collapse of the Labour government, most of us

would bet that Labour would win without any changes. In different

circumstances, that might be a different answer. But if the

government collapses in the next few months, he is likely to win without

making any changes. I think that is the wrong advice. If you want him to

win, and maybe you don't. But the reality is, if there is a general

election campaign where Jeremy Corbyn is six points behind in the

polls for three weeks, you have a real chance of winning. But he has

to plan for a campaign where Labour is ahead and people are asking, can

Jeremy Corbyn become Prime Minister. Then becomes about the team and the.

He is not turning to people like new, is he? Because your wing of the

Labour Party is now irrelevant to him. He is in charge, his people are

in charge. He is moving to take over the party and run it in his image,

and you can't stop him. Labour exists in parliament to become the

government, and that means you have to win a majority. Can he win? I

don't he can win a majority because I don't think he is prepared to do

what he needs to do to win a majority. He could certainly be the

largest party. He had a hard enough time kissing hands when he first

became leader. What if the FN Ashman the SNP was to charge a billion?

Now, what's the toughest part of being an MP?

Well, there's one aspect of the job that politicians have always

found impossible to get right - acting normal.

From eating bacon sarnies to executing a Mexican wave,

our politicians have always left the rest of us cringing

in their attempt to be at one with Joe Public.

So it's only fitting we're putting political awkwardness

Yes, it's been another awkward week for Donald Trump.

His son leaked his own e-mails with a Russian intermediary.

In retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently.

Did you tell your father anything about this?

Thankfully, Kellyanne Conway was on hand to clear it all up.

This is to help all the people so far.

So, just so we're clear, everyone, four words -

Meanwhile, the King of Spain came to visit.

Cue awkward royal hat moments and uncomfortable topics to address.

I am certain that this resolve to overcome our differences

will be even greater in the case of Gibraltar.

In Parliament, one Tory MP shared his thoughts on the PM's

clumsy conciliation with Jeremy Corbyn.

Given the record of the Leader of the Opposition

on the Counterterrorism and Security Act, does she possess

While at Wimbledon, Andy Murray took exception to one

Andy, Sam is the first US player to reach a Major semifinal since 2009.

Comedian Richard Herring thinks we're living in a golden age

of political awkwardness, and he's loving every minute of it.

Are we living in an age of unprecedented political awkwardness?

We have a lot of terrible politicians. Democracy has fallen in

on itself and given us some terrible people we have to put up with. We

have had one of them onto night, at least. And he has never even been

elected. He is a member of the European Parliament. He is trying to

destroy his own... He is not here so let's stick to the awkward

proposition. Our politicians naturally awkward? I don't think so.

Maybe it is because we see so much into their lives now, Strictly Come

Dancing and people dressed in space suits. I don't think Gladstone would

have done that. That is part of it. It has become entertainment and

everyone is school in how to answer questions. Theresa May, throughout

the whole election, just giving out her nonsensical answers to

questions, carried on doing it after the election in much more difficult

circumstances, and we are clever enough to see through it. The

reference to Gladstone is interesting because we were a much

more formal society in the 19th century and politicians were

expected to be the formal of a formal. We are now much more

informal and we probably expect, at least the politicians think they

need to be more informal, too. It definitely cuts both ways, true.

They are not very good at it. Theresa May is Prime Minister,

somehow, and she is the most awkward person. As we have seen, that

incredible election campaign where she went from basically the

Conservative Party's name was not even on the banner, and you saw her

just fall, as it was too much pressure. As everyone says, she is a

very robotic and strange woman who cried at losing an election

apparently but did not show any emotion in the coming weeks when

terrible things happened. I think this is a lazy way of discussing the

subject. The politicians we have are not a breed, not born separately,

not a different species. They arise from the public. If you think

politicians are so dreadful, be a politician yourself, stop whining

about it. I have just been asked to talk about it. I have a lot of

respect for a lot of politicians but it is the people who are rising to

the top. I think there are a lot of great politicians and MPs and I do

not say any politician is awful but there are a lot of politicians

rising up from the same school, so it's all very well to say... It was

my attempt at changing your June. I am not changing my tune. I am

talking about Trump and May, and even called in to an extent. You are

just going for the easy targets. I am going for the people in charge,

which is what we are talking about. There are plenty of decent

politicians but because it is so showbiz, the wrong people are pushed

to the top. It is also 24-7, so you have more chance to see awkward

moments. In days gone by, you would never have got to see them. There is

such inconsistency in what you say. It is showbiz and people are pushed

to the top. Mrs May has not been pushed to the top because she is

showbiz. You have not bought the thing through, have you? We are

talking about lots of different things. She has not done a good job.

We are talking about awkwardness and she has been very awkward. She has

been treated as a showbiz person. After the Grenfell Tower disaster,

if she had just said, this is terrible and answered as a human

being, she could have turned everything around within two or

three days. Instead, she did what she did in the election, which was

to give what she had trotted out, Brexit means Brexit, we are not

answering the question, and people turned against her. That is where

she was weakened. Who is more awkward, Gordon Brown or Theresa

May? I think Theresa May is as awkward in private as she is in

public, and Gordon was somebody who in private was much more at ease

with himself and found it very hard to convey that on camera. One of the

things which Richard isn't taking into account is that the reality is

it is quite hard not to be awkward when you are asked to do important

or difficult things, but being filmed with cameras and

photographers around you. In the end, you have to be able to put that

to one side and be yourself and be as authentic as you can. Gordon

found it hard, Theresa May finds it impossible. Tony Blair was better at

that but you probably dislike him for different reasons. What are you

up to? Ayew I'm doing in Edinburgh show. I have a book of emergency

questions that can help you out. But not for us - we're off to Number

10 for Theresa May's annual Chocolate Oranges for every

participant and a bottle of prosecco for the winning team -

Philip May should be warming it up Anyway, here's a sneak peek

of our musical teamwork When I think of the world

we inhabit, everyone will think,