Laura Kuenssberg

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Indulge me. Ahead of any major political intervention there are, I'm afraid, days of speculation - much of it pointless - about what might be said or not be said.

However, sometimes that speculation results in the giver of the speech saying, well, frankly not very much at all.

It is this possibility that has been sketched out to me today by several people familiar with some of the conversations around the Brexit speech Theresa May is due to give in Italy on Friday.

One speculated that we might be "heading for Florentine fudge", another that the PM might "almost comically say nothing at all".

This scenario may, of course, not come to pass. The speech is still changing; there may be many drafts yet. But here's how the theory goes.

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One of Boris Johnson's colleagues once said to me, "the thing you have to understand about him, is that he wants to be loved."

A human enough observation. A little cruel perhaps, a slightly dismissive barb to explain the foreign secretary's political motivations. It does, in part, tell us what this explosion is all about.

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No sooner had her next European adventure been confirmed than the speculation began.

What message will Theresa May take with her to Italy next week? Inside Number 10, the view is not to spill a single fagiolo, a bean, before the words come out of her mouth.

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In the early hours the government won its vote on the behemoth-like task of transferring laws incorporated from the EU on to a new statute book.

In the end Labour doubts and a strict hand from the Tory whips won the day and the numbers were more comfortable than the squeaky feeling at the start of the political week suggested.

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What is all the fuss about?

Listen to ministers and all they are trying to do is tidy up the paperwork, cross the t's and dot the i's. Listen to Labour and Theresa May is trying her luck as a despot, grabbing power in great chunks, never again to give our elected representatives the chance to argue or even consider what's being done on our behalf.

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After a summer where Tory supporters of a more gradual Brexit were heartened by statements from ministers, now comes the, probably inevitable, pushback.

A letter leaked to the BBC, signed by dozens of Tory MPs, was scheduled for the pages of a Sunday newspaper, demanding that Theresa May stand firm, and stick to her original plan for Brexit.

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The prime minister has at least two big reasons for wanting to get this right.

For Theresa May, the referendum result was a clear instruction from the British people that they wanted to reduce the levels of immigration. Politically, therefore, she believes it's a demand she has to meet.

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There are 66 pages in the European Withdrawal Bill, the passage of which will be arguably this fragile government's hardest job, in a fractious political universe with a weakened prime minister. The bill comes back to the Commons this Thursday, with the first votes next week.

Opposition MPs could field a forest of hostile amendments, proposed changes to the complicated legislation, some frankly to make political points, some to try to make reasonable changes to the legislation.

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David Davis will go back to Brussels on Thursday for the conclusion of the second round of official Brexit talks.

At his first photocall he set himself up for a bit of gentle mockery, being photographed without his notes, compared to the fat packets of EU documents on the table.

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With rumour swirling, gossip in the air about the cabinet, it is hard to work out what is really going on. Since Mrs May didn't really win the prize she was expecting, ministers have become an unruly lot. Tomorrow, they're all going to get a telling off (with apologies to the truth).

Why is she so cross?