meanwhile, an increasingly vocal group of conservatives at westminster put forward its own proposals for the talks, particularly with reference to the tricky issue of the irish border. they claimed their plan was nothing to do with the issue of theresa may's leadership. many observers thought otherwise. we'll come onto leadership issues. annalisa first, what's your take on the eu's approach? there has been a significant change this week, and i think there's going to have some important consequences on brexit and an theresa may's leadership. mainly, there has been an awareness of the significant rise of the far right, and the populist movements in europe, is going to create a lot of problems for the good opinion, especially in the next six months. things are getting a

bit, located and warring, and there has been quite a significant alarm for steve bannon coming to europe, saying that he is going to advise an alliance of alt right europeans to ta ke alliance of alt right europeans to take over the european parliament. it might sound like a joke, but it is actually quite worrying if you think that the far right has got into power in italy, the third economy of the eurozone. and europe is very nervous about the collision course of the italian far right government with brussels on financial rules. so it is getting very tense in europe. the idea of throwing a lifeline to theresa may might sound appealing, because it would avoid another hardliner in britain, which is not something anybody wants. that is interesting. do you sense a similar shift?” think do you sense a similar shift?|j think theresa do you sense a similar shift?” think theresa may's scenario points to the fact that there are no strong

european governments, they are all facing their own crisis at home. in germany, angela merkel is facing the election in bavaria where our partner in crime is at work, the csu head, fighting for his survival, and so head, fighting for his survival, and so forth. —— her partner in crime as it were. which means that brexit is not a gender issue number one in germany, because they have domestic problems to solve. they are somewhat fatigued of hearing about brexit, nothing is solved until everything is solved is the mantra, which means you can wait until the end of the year. many people here are fatigued, to! absolutely. and one thing that annalisa said about theresa may is quite true, germany also wants to make quite sure what the deal at the end does not mean a coup against theresa may, germans want to theresa may to continue if they can because

the alternative is nobody who beckons as a likely leader. and so the main line is, keep her in power. how they will go about that, depending on the commission and michel barnier, is beyond to tell. but they will certainly be in of somebody or other, because it would be just as catastrophic for europe as for britain, and i cannot conceive in my mind, it would require a huge suspension of disbelief to think that europe would allow a no deal scenario to emerge. i don't think that we will, definitely not. it will hurt us as much as everyone in britain. no, but there is fear that a jacob rees—mogg government might go in that direction, so in that sense throwing a lifeline to may would make sense, because it is the least worst. the practicalities are that, i think the

european union and the individual states have left things to michel barnier with the assumption that, by about now, things would be in a very political, classic will european union wait, just fixed or fudged. there are some indications that that is happening, and i think some sort of deal is coming, but it is not just the trade disruption, it is the thing which will be on german minds and an french minds in terms of the stability of the eurozone, the potential for disruption because london runs the eurozone's debt markets. it is a global giant, so disrupting that, as the bank of england has pointed out, is not a terribly good idea. and also the security and intelligence situation is such that britain is, for better or worse, the leading security and intelligence power in europe and wants to continue co—operation and working together. i think about it only get to november, christmas, you

will see politics intervene. it is not guaranteed, a lot of things can go wrong by accident in european history, and frequently have done. but it seems to be heading in that direction. jef, isn't this fascinating? because people will be screaming at the television, we have been saying for months and months that there would not be a deal, but there has been all this negativity in the world of politics, and ultimately, to paraphrase all of you, it is in everyone's interests to come up with something. yes, but what? i understand the dynamics of doing something in order not to have the horror of a crash out, but i still fear that there is so much stasis, so much built—in on each side to the positions against compromise, that we will get to a place for the best compromise, and i don't think it is a bad one necessarily, is to say, we all agree ona necessarily, is to say, we all agree on a timeout. we will keep doing this, we will be in brexit wimble,

for another year until we can get it done. it is i still thinkjacob rees—mogg cannot stand chequers. chequers, if you'll get all of the red lines that have been driven by there, it is impossible for the eu to a cce pt there, it is impossible for the eu to accept this and still be the eu. and ireland cannot accept a hard border, all the irish politicians will get kicked out of office. all the things that put this into loggerheads remain, and so is the a nswer loggerheads remain, and so is the answer a leadership election here, is ita answer a leadership election here, is it a leadership election where jeremy corbyn says my position is have a second referendums would break the logjam ? have a second referendums would break the logjam? i don't see this getting solved with some kind of political shift, within europe the fear of alt right will be enough, but i don't see that here. jacob rees—mogg, to remind viewers, is the man at the helm of the european research group and these are the people we have been talking about this week, iain, who have been making rumblings about leadership, whether they say it is reticent.”

think one thing that is guaranteed to provoke a real political explosion and then the whole think rushing down is the idea of trying to extend article 50 —— bring the whole thing crashing down. to say, let's do this for another year, it is too difficult. i don't think the politics of the tory party, the largest party in the uk, would sustain a delayed brexit. it has to happen in some form by march 2019, hopefully with some sort of transition period and a sensible deal. and that seems to be where they are getting too. in terms of ireland, it will be fudged. the irish and the british have been fudging the irish border question, which is complex, since 1921. 1923, common travel agreement. we have always found ways around these difficulties. and it does seem to be the beginnings of the understanding and some of the capitals, this is a particularly british — irish problem, which you might need to fight the language around. i sense

something like a tripartite commission on the irish border being established or some waffle like that. lorries going through doughnut, it is smuggling, practicalities, it needs to be resolved. in terms of the tory leadership, theresa may is had a very good week because the hardliners, you mentioned jacob rees—mogg, but also those who want borisjohnson, the former foreign secretary, to be tory leader, have put themselves in a really ridiculous situation in that they have propped up may until now, they are anti—chequers, but then in the week where they were supposed to unveil low—grade alternative plan or proposal, it came to naught. they say they have lots of technological ways of solving the irish border problem... their biggest problem is that the added of relying on a

report this week that promised £1 trillion bonanza from the deal, that everything would be marvellous, which i asked somebody who voted for brexit, think is implausible. you have to be realistic about the threats and challenge some of their thinking. so the hardliners at the moment, which will please those in the european union who want a deal, the european union who want a deal, the hardliners are in disarray. they are not sure whether to challenge her, some of them wants to challenge her, some of them wants to challenge her, they did not have an alternative. it's not as if they have someone like michael heseltine who in the late 1980s was the king over the water, so there's not a in waiting. boris is, in the words of one of his former advisers this week, disintegrating. he has his own difficulties. so there is not an obvious candidate. so you think right now, for now, theresa may is safe. i think she gets through it as long as there is some kind of deal and fudge around these issues, she probably get through until brexit.

taking a step back from a brexit, looking at the state of society in britain at the moment, i think the notion that the decision in 2016 was the will of the people, is flatly wrong. it is not the people who spoke in 2016, the actual result of it isa spoke in 2016, the actual result of it is a deep division of the country, there is no clear will of the people available. it is in fighting all the time, and that worries me more than anything else. of course, which is why a compromise deal is needed to bring those two sides together. and we will see what emerges. we are heading up to the salzburg summit this week, and party conference political season as well, so we conference political season as well, so we will see what emerges in the next week or so. plenty to discuss next week or so. plenty to discuss next weekend, i'm sure. ten years ago this weekend, lehman brothers bank collapsed, the most significant moment in the global financial crash, which affected jobs, homes and incomes in countries around the world, and still does today. gordon brown, who was britain's prime minister at the time, is among those who warned this week

that when the next crisis hits — when, not if — the international community will have neither the ability nor willingness to tackle it together. jef, did gordon brown have a point, do you think? i think so. i think there are lots of reasons to be concerned about this. i think human beings in finances and other areas are better preparing for the last war than the next one. there has been important change in the global financial system. the banks have been struggling to recapitalise, more attention to the emergency bra kes more attention to the emergency brakes and buffers, ways of trying to prevent one local problem at a lehman brothers from spiralling into a well financial problem. —— world financial problem. but people are attracted to bubbles, they are a lwa ys attracted to bubbles, they are always much easier to identify in retrospect. people said there would bea retrospect. people said there would be a crash in 2006 and 2007, and

there are people saying it now. and are they right or are they wrong? so the question is, are the systemic solutions to the problem is advisers, or deterrents? and if you look at the problems of the world economy generally, the amount of debt, government debt is double what it was then. a big physical stimulus that was done by the americans, by the europeans, might be harder to do now and might be hard to do quantitative easing again. interest rates are already at the bottom, so where is the wiggle room if there we re where is the wiggle room if there were to be another crisis? and here is donald trump deliver n to make the world economic system less stable. trade wars, yes. trade wars and not cooperating on all such things. if a phone call came at 3,00 in the morning saying another lehman brothers is collapsing, would he know what to do or be able to get

anyone to help? and there are added complexities in the economy will stop china has lots of strange banks that are not capitalised property, nor the delay has visibility into it. you look at things like the way hacking occurs now, hacking can change the american election. you can see somebody deliberately trying to affect the banks. there is a long list of potential problems, yes. so ido list of potential problems, yes. so i do worry, and also, finally, we are still living with the consequences politically of the crash, and the amount of trust by people in the government for handling problems like this is probably yes. and the ceo now earns 350 times the average paid workers in the united states. the benefits of the tax cuts are not going to normal people. the sense of connection between people and system is even less now than it was in 2008, andi is even less now than it was in 2008, and i think that is a very big worry for stability. the question is, nothing that is all correct, the

question is whether that crisis in 08,09 question is whether that crisis in 08, 09 was one of those every 60,70 years financial events. i would have to say the financial crisis took my whole career in a different direction. i ended up writing books about the crisis and about the collapse of rbs, which was the big bank in the uk which went bust. and i think we are brown is right, and i don't often say that, but i think where he is spot on his the methods for international cooperation are weaker than they were ten years ago, partly because of the president of the united states, partly because of shifts in geopolitics, the rise of china, which has continued. sol think that if we do hit some emergency for one of the reasons that you described, there is certainly a? over the continuation... and he was particularly talking about leadership, he said the lack of

international leadership. absolutely, and he knows very well because he was very admirably one of the readers who called the g20 to discuss it at a global level, so gordon brown has a real direct experience of what happened, and quite rightly, as you put it, underlined, the biggest difference between now and ten years ago is the breaking down of international cooperation. so if it was to happen now, in which the european union is ona now, in which the european union is on a collision course with donald trump, on climate change, an iran, on trade, where would it be the kind of cooperation that was there ten yea rs of cooperation that was there ten years ago? and especially in europe, the cooperation again between countries is a kind of historic minimum when it comes to solidarity. the european central bank, very famously, the governor said, we are

going to save the euro whatever it ta kes. going to save the euro whatever it takes. could they do that now? no, they couldn't, because there is no possibility any more to keep going with quantitative easing. there is a big difficulty and propping up countries if the eurozone was hit. . ....this countries if the eurozone was hit. . .... this isa countries if the eurozone was hit. . .... this is a very countries if the eurozone was hit. . . this is a very gloomy prospect! i am horrified as we discover the reed discuss what might happen, although brown does not have a great record of predicting the future in the summer of 2007, he said we were heading into a golden era, boom and bust had been exercised. and we should remember, he was chancellor before he was prime minister. he nationalised northern rock, so he did not see anything coming. i agree that this isa anything coming. i agree that this

is a horrific scenario. i wonder about the guy in the street, myself and how we cope with the cost of living. what is good to happen to ongoing cuts in public services, to stagnating wages and living standards below what they were ten years ago? versus the immediate problem we are facing. we might face huger problems down the road, but this is the one at the moment. and it causes all sorts of disruption in our societies. how do we cope with the current crisis which is ongoing? the labour party is talking about the just about managing bully, which isa the just about managing bully, which is a theresa may phrase, and there is a theresa may phrase, and there is truth in that, there are a lot of people who are hurting from lack of growth and prospects, so how to solve the current imbalances and the public expenditure crisis, the cuts in public services, in what

interests me more than what might happen down the line in the future. and i have not seen an answer from the government, or anyone else, for that problem to solve. it is important to mark these anniversaries and to keep thinking about financial history. we have a habit, as human beings, of time rolls on, we forget, we make the same mistakes again. in the central mistake that brown made was to assume, and to tell voters that the economic social had been abolished. the terms invented a new way of thinking about economic 's, but would not be the crashes of the past. those effects could be managed. and it turns out whether it is the south sea bubble or the tulip craze of the rail disasters of stock in the 1850s, the 1929 crash, capitalism has built into it, it has many great things, but builds until it is wanting it while you get over excitement and you can get a crash

and get chaos. is that right, but i think we need to reflect on these anniversaries to reflect and analyse our world. the main question should be, how do we reinforce international cooperation? because we arejust international cooperation? because we are just witnessing a disruption of international solidarity at a european level, at american level, with other superpowers, and we are not thinking about the consequences. if something goes wrong. thank you for now for that. a final thought on today's programme. if you had two russian friends who had just 48 hours to spend in the uk, what would you put on their 'must—see' list? the tower of london, buckingham palace, perhaps edinburgh's royal mile, oxford or cambridge? the two men who appeared on rt this week, russia's state—sponsored television channel, said they were advised by friends to visit salisbury. the uk had previously named alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov as being from russia's military intelligence service, and suspects in the poisoning of sergei and yulia skripal in salisbury in march.

the british government produced cctv footage of them in the city. thomas, salisbury is a nice place, but were theyjust tourists as they say? information given to me by president putin shows a tendency in russia to humour led britain even more, and to make britain a laughing stock by coming up in such an unbelievable story, that i don't think even president putin himself could have taken president putin himself could have ta ken seriously. president putin himself could have taken seriously. he puts it out a nyway taken seriously. he puts it out anyway because he thinks britain is there for the asking, if you must have a good laugh at their expense, this is one way of doing it. i don't think he could reasonably believe that anyone in the world would believe such a clock and bull 's —— story. it is unbelievable, so why does he put it up? it is as i said, to make britain a laughing stock. i

do not see any other primaries in northern —— any other rhyme or reason of an putin having a laugh at our expense. there are so many cathedrals we have to see. i was astonished that they were put off by the slush, coming from the russian military, you would've thought snow but not traditionally have been a problem. but i think that is fair point, and actually post brexit, all of the troubles europe is going through, that is the conversation we need to have with ourselves about how do we organise nato cooperation, and actually send a message to the russians? this was a very serious matter on british soil, and people we re matter on british soil, and people were seriously ill, and one person lost her life because of novichok poisoning. which tells you to what extent putin believes now his reign of co m plete extent putin believes now his reign of complete impunity. the fact he could make a joke on the fact that

two migration agents might have killed someone in britain, just joked that they were tourists, just tells you the kind of level of co nte m pt tells you the kind of level of contempt for britain. i agree with thomas, if it was one reason why it was done, it was to make a joke of the british intelligence services. you think you found them? no, they we re you think you found them? no, they were touristss. so he is kind of taunting britain on the global stage. yes. so what happens now? god forbid, could it poisoning happen ain? forbid, could it poisoning happen again? where does this go next? well, i look at the alexander litvinenko poisoning in 2006, this is so similar, because it was not understood how it was done. once they figured out it was polonium, polonium leaves traces, be followed them, they gave a press conference and went to the british embassy, they could follow them all over europe, the individual seats they flew in on aeroplanes from russia to the uk to make it happen, and we

spoke out and give a similar press conference. and it isjust spoke out and give a similar press conference. and it is just classic russian intelligence way of doing things, they will continue to do things, they will continue to do things like this. you say after brexit, we need to figure out about solidarity. actually, putin is the winner in some ways, he is the winner in some ways, he is the winner of the american election and he is the winner of brexit because it divides everybody. the european union is as much use as a chocolate fireguard when it comes to security. nato really does the security in europe, which we need to strengthen. but the point is that he acts with impunity, which needs to be addressed. we need to find ways to tell them that they cannot do this. yes, so how does this happen? the doping issue in sports, of russian sponsored, state—sponsored doping, did come out, let to the banning of russian institutions. and then they

have the world cup in russia! i don't know. i think the sanctions that pick an individual people around him soon to be the most effective so far, and if get rid of hot russian mining in london, it would put in a lot of bankers and lawyers out of business here. but i think that we world attention, but again, that requires global attention because you have to get it out of the cayman islands and a lot of other places as well. but enforcing the common europeans and the policy is the future, but we do not talk about that. the european union is also that, they have interacted at for 20 years. nato exists and is a proper defence alliance. donald trump things that nato is obsolete and is threatening the europeans, so nato is not exactly the answer. there are all sorts of countries in europe which are not necessarily fill members of

the eurozone, full participating members of the eu. we will all have to find a way outside or alongside the european union of cooperating on defence, security, and intelligence. that'll be a topic most certainly for another day. thank you to all of you, good to see you. that's it for dateline london for this week. we're back next week at the same time. goodbye. i suppose if you take into consideration what is happening across the globe with the storms at the moment, the weather through the uk is pretty decent this weekend, relatively quiet. we started off with beautiful blue sky and sunshine, as you can see from this picture sent in from essex. i know

the cloud has developed over the last few hours, andy keates fair—weather cloud across central and southern parts of england and wales. but that is where the best of the weather will be, a few spots of rain, and maybe some brighter spells into the afternoon into parts of eastern scotland, but generally speaking, cloud thickening and showers the north—east. 11! to 16 celsius the high, so through the evening and overnight, we start saving and strengthening further still. that will dry in some cloud and more heavy rain through northern ireland and western scotland. eventually it will push across the whole of scotland, stretching out of the borders into the north of england and north wales by dawn tomorrow morning. sunday start with the real north—south divide across the real north—south divide across the country. best of the weather looking like in central and southern areas, and a light south—westerly flow starting to develop, slightly warmer if we keep the sunshine. the strand continues to move south, into

the north midlands, wales and south—west england by the end of the afternoon. behind this weather front, winds easing slightly in scotland, the same in northern ireland, 13 to 18 celsius the high. but in the south—east, we could see 23. things get interesting as we move into monday, with the steep area of low pressure washing in from the atlantic. this is the remnants ofx the atlantic. this is the remnants of x hurricane helene. it will bring some heavy rain and some strong to gale force winds across the northern half of the country. but at the same time, this will feel really odd, tropical air, so that south—westerly flow dragging in some humidity, so if you've not got the cloud, the wind and the rain, it will feel quite warm with it. almost quite a bonkers setup into the early half of next week. often windy with some rain at times, but it will feel

humid for many in the south. this is bbc news. the headlines at midday. the strongest typhoon so far this year has been battering the northern phillipines with violent winds and 20 foot storm surges. thousands have been evacuated. there has been a need for water and kitchen essentials to make their lives more tolerable in the evacuation centres. tropical storm florence is causing catastrophic flooding on the us east coast. five are reported dead so far, as forecasters warn of life—threatening storm surges. but once we get to that nine foot range, this is an absolute life threatening scenario. also coming up this hour, an overhaul of divorce law. ministers set out plans for no fault—divorce, removing the need to allege blame.