Theresa May: 'difficult times ahead'

So I've just stepped off Mayfly or Theresair* or whatever you want to call the PM's personal jet - which she inherited from David Cameron (which he bought but never properly used, poor sausage).

If you are wondering whether the plane is a terrible waste of taxpayers' money (our money), I cannot tell you - because I haven't seen how much it cost and how it was financed.

What I can tell you is that it is comfortable for a ten hour flight but not flashy, and they ran out of fizzy water when we were barely out of London. Sigh.

Theresa May was using the RAF-operated jet for the first time, on her very first trip to China (to balmy Hangzhou). And it's also her first opportunity to hobnob as our leader with the supreme beings who run the G20 most powerful economies.

She's new to us, and it is all new to her. And my goodness she's in at the deep end.

She'll have private meetings with four of the six most important government heads, namely America's Obama, China's Xi, Russia's Putin and India's Modi (but not Japan's Abe, who Bank of England governor Carney may see, and not Merkel).

So what's on her agenda?

Well she spoke to hacks on the plane, and gave a preview of a few of the messages she'll be delivering.

First she wanted to biff the idea that she is a sino-sceptic, or China hater, and that she wishes to ditch the Osborne/Cameron love-in with Beijing.

She will tell President Xi that she embraces their notion that we have entered a "golden era" of economic cooperation with China and wants "to continue to build on that".

So, for what it's worth, I reckon this means the vast and expensive Hinkley Point power station, to be part funded with Chinese billions, will get her thumbs up - and that China will also get what it wants rather more, which is permission to build another plant at Bradwell.

But, and it is an important qualification, she also wants to deepen relations with other big and important economies. She wants to play the field.

This diplomatic and trading promiscuity is similar to how she changed Osborne/Cameron's regional and industrial policy from Northern Powerhouse to anywhere-outside-London Powerhouse

She'll tell anyone willing to listen - but especially Obama - that she wants the UK to be "a global leader in free trade". Which means - and I interpret - "please give us preferential access to your markets, to compensate for the friction and costs we are about to experience in our trading with the EU's single market".

That said she recognizes not everyone everywhere feels they've benefited from globalization and trade liberalization. Which is why she wants trade deals that "benefit everybody" (good luck with that).

And what will she tell her peers about the economic impact of that Brexit vote - given that most of them prophesied doom.

Well this is what she told us: "I think the reaction of the economy has been better than some had predicted post the referendum. But I won't pretend it will be plain sailing. There will be some difficult times ahead".

Is that a curmudgeonly concession by a Remain campaigner or a prudent warning by a sensible realist? You'll probably judge based on your own Brexit stance.

But it is consistent with her mantra of the moment, which is that she operates not on gut but on evidence - and it is far too early to definitively assess the economic impact of our historic decision to leave the EU.

*thanks to my Twitter chums for the plane names