Brexit: Are chances of a trade deal rising again? - BBC News
A Brexit trade deal is still far from certain, but the ground may have shifted in its favour.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Johnson: 'Whatever happens, the UK will do very, very well'

When is a deadline not a deadline? When it's anything to do with Brexit, perhaps.

Both sides in this long, long process, have agreed to go on rather than pull the plug today.

A joint statement emerged just before noon with a much more positive tone than anything that's come out of late, and did not feature the usual kind of warning of big gaps between the two sides.

The froideur from Thursday and Friday seems to be thawing a little. It's also worth noting no new time limit was put on the talks, although of course there is one hard deadline of 31 December, when the status quo runs out.

It's also worth noting that the prime minister was loath to show much sign of optimism when he appeared in front of a camera shortly after the joint statement emerged.

Stripping away the spin on both sides, there is little question that the prospects of a deal felt slim at the end of the week.

The prime minister moved repeatedly to start warning the public and business that leaving without an agreement felt increasingly likely, unless there was some shift in the EU position.

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Remember it's not that long ago that a deal had seemed within reach, before some countries started pushing for a more robust approach.

It seems now that in the last couple of days the negotiators have taken some small steps back towards that position with suggestions that Brussels has softened its position on how the two sides sort out disputes over common rules in the years to come.

There are whispers that they have pulled back from trying to include the "ratchet clause", a major UK gripe explained by my colleague Faisal Islam.

This was the problem described by Mr Johnson on Thursday using a rather bizarre metaphor about twins.

However you describe it, it was clear the UK just wasn't willing to accept that the EU could take punitive action on its own, so the negotiators have been trying to sort out how to fix it together.

Indeed one diplomatic source suggested that the "ratchet clause" approach had been abandoned some time ago, and the political narratives on both sides have been running behind what's been happening in the negotiating room.

The circle around the talks is extremely tight so it is very hard to know precisely what is going on. It is possible that both sides are dangling concessions.

One Cabinet minister on the call with the prime minister said even they weren't told about the details of where any movement has been going on.

But there is the sense now that the ground has shifted enough to make the chance of a deal worth pursuing.

As the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told the BBC this morning, there is always the possibility of "creative contours in the drafting".

In other words - the political imperatives to make this happen are so strong that even tricky issues at this late stage can still potentially be fudged.

It's far from certain that the talks will end in agreement, but the chances of resolution are once again on the rise.