Hello and welcome to The Spectator podcast.

I'm Laura Prendergast and on this week's episode we're going to be talking about James

Versaith coverpiece in which he suggests that Theresa May has been dealt a pack of aces for her

Brexit negotiations. We'll also be looking at Sadiq Khan's progress as mayor, half a year into

his tenure and we'll be looking at whetheradiq Khan's progress as mayor, half a year into his tenure,

and we'll be looking at whether Advent is actually better than Christmas.

The morning after Brexit, Britain looked like it might be in crisis.

The Prime Minister had resigned.

Scotland was suggesting a second referendum and the footsie was in freefall.

Britain looked like it may be the next Greece, facing a terrible EU deal.

But, as James says in this week's cover story, the Prime Minister is now going into the negotiations with a pack of aces.

He joins me now, along with Isabel Hardman, our assistant editor.

So James, in this week's cover, we've got Corbyn, Trump and a crumbling Euro depicted as these aces.

Why are these good cards for me? So I think there are five things that mean that Britain's negotiating position is stronger than it looked like being on the morning of

June the 24th. The first is, as you said, the economy has simply not collapsed. Britain is not going

to go into this negotiation desperate for a deal, any deal. The second is Scotland. I think there

was even one of the people

who represented the Leave side in the TV debate said to me that they felt sick to their stomach

when they saw Nicholas Durgeon talking about a second independence referendum in the morning

afterwards. There was a real fear that the vote to leave might have given the S&P the grounds for

a divorce that they've been so desperately looking for. But there has actually been no upsurge in support for

independence. It is still below 50%. And I think the S&P have also chosen the wrong hill on which to fight.

...