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Hello and welcome to Spectator Coffee House Shots.

Last night, Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen had dinner.

They instructed their negotiators to go away and work some more and come back to them

on Sunday to see how far they got. But it is perhaps a sign of how dinner went that both the UK and

the EU have been speaking much more openly about No Deal today. Earlier today we had the EU's

contingency plans for No Deal and Boris Johnson had just held a cabinet meeting and done a clip for the TV news afterwards, in which he said that he told the cabinet to get ready for leaving the EU without a trade deal.

Katie, what to make of all this?

Well, I think it's interesting in the sense that both sides are still talking. Now, that might

sound like stating the bleeding obvious. Nothing wrong with that. That's what we reduced to on this

podcast, no. But ultimately, while both sides are talking, I think, you know, you can't say no deal

is a sure thing by any degree, and there is still a chance of a deal. Yeah, it's very clear from the actions today,

from Boris Johnson's address, and also just speaking to people privately, there is a lot more

pessimism on the UK side about a deal. They feel that the dinner last night, you know,

may have had plenty of fish dishes, but it didn't need any breakthrough on fishing.

And likewise, on level playing field, things the Prime Minister suggesting were more

grieved with silence than a sense of maybe we could do that.

So I think that while both sides agree for talks to continue, this idea that is given the

talks political umph is yet to materialise.

And therefore, I think both sides talking about no deal shows that it's on their mind.

I think that when it comes to whether it means we are heading to no deal,

it's still the case that, you know, Boris Johnson is talking tough on no deal,

...