I am delighted that you buy The Telegraph, but next week make sure you also buy the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Because on Monday, Theresa May will have lunch with Jean-Claude Juncker, and when they have dined together previously, a disparaging account of their conversation has been leaked to the German newspaper, allegedly via Juncker’s chief of staff, Martin Selmayr.

The Prime Minister’s objective is to ensure that at the next European Council meeting, in two weeks, the EU will agree that “sufficient progress” has been made so the Brexit talks can move from phase one, covering our departure, to phase two, covering our future relationship with Europe.

She is making good progress in removing the blockages. The first is Britain’s exit payment. If reports are true that officials have agreed a formula for calculating Britain’s legal liabilities, this will constitute sufficient progress on the issue that matters most to the 27 remaining member states. If the liabilities amount to between £40 and £60 billion, they will be more than Britain’s opening offer, less than the EU’s early demands, and approximately where we would always end up.

The second blockage is about the role of the European Court of Justice in guaranteeing the rights of the three million EU nationals who came to Britain under free movement rules. Without such a role for the ECJ, the Commission believes that the Court will veto the Brexit treaty when it comes to ratification. Britain’s reported suggestion – that the Supreme Court might refer cases to the ECJ when matters of European law are unclear – would avoid the risk of individual citizens petitioning the European Court, limit its role, and stop it undermining Britain’s ability to control future immigration.