Good to hear that the ERG star chamber has approved the Brexit trade deal (or Deal--- as I think it should be called). It "preserves the UK's sovereignty as a matter of law" they say. I wonder what they'd have said if they'd actually read it.

Boris Johnson: "we have pressed ahead with this task, resisting all calls for delay, precisely because creating certainty about our future provides the best chance of beating Covid"

Eh?
I'm pretty sure Brexit preceded pandemic but there we are. I would advise, having read extracts from the speech Johnson is to deliver, that people put away sharp objects, bricks etc if they're going to watch the debate. And there is never an excuse for kicking the cat.
Starmer is now savaging (politely) the PM, pointing out lies and inconsistencies. Given he's already whipped Labour MPs to support the bill, I think he's wasting his breath - the result is already settled, the headlines already written.
I have to say that Johnson is performing well: a fake success allied to complete lack of scrutiny has empowered him. He's flinging lies like a monkey flings its own dung.
Theresa May has just had a whine about Labour not backing the deal she negotiated. File under "irrelevant".
Ian Blackford up now, valiantly pointing out more lies and inconsistencies. I disagree with Blackford's comment that Scottish fishing is Johnson's "biggest betrayal" - he's done far worse than that and he doesn't give a toss about a few fishing Sweaties anyway.
Up pops Peter Bottomley: I thought he was dead (soon will be if Lucy Allan has her way). Ever the rebel, he says he's against it but will vote for it.
Sammy Wilson speaks.

Sammy Wilson stops speaking.
Iain Duncan Smith is up. I watch avidly in case this is the day his head explodes through an overdose of self-satisfaction but am disappointed. He says nothing interesting. As ever.
A comment by ERG that I missed: Level playing field clauses "their impact on the practical exercise of sovereignty is likely to be limited if addressed by a robust government."

That means they want us to bomb France in 2022, I think.
Kevin Brennan: Even on the government’s own terms, this deal is a failure. It is a thin deal and a bad deal. He won’t be voting for it.
Hilary Benn welcomes the "absence of tariffs" as well as level playing field and security provisions.

That sound you can hear is father Tony spinning in his grave.
Ellie Reeves will vote for the bill, surprise, surprise. She posted a statement earlier.

https://t.co/iL1CxOg19s
Dame Cheryl Gillan: the UK can once again "control its own destiny", making the UK's departure from the EU a "controlled" one.

Passing the bill will leave the country in a "golden position"

And by the way, services ...
Some light relief: Boris Johnson sitting on the front bench, thinking about pilchards.
Not so light relief - the population is weary.
Mark Francois has quoted Nigel Farage and Braveheart. Nearing peak stupidity now.

Just a reminder, don't be alone with Mark Francois or let him into your home.
David Davis lends us his wisdom. He says we're not just going to have the exact same benefits of membership, we're going to have better than the exact same benefits.

🎵The years have made me bitter, the gargle dims me brain 🎵
Diane Abbott says she will not be voting for the bill, condemns the way the bill is being rushed through parliament. Harsh criticism of how the deal limits UK access to EU databases accessed by the police.
Damian Green, one hand in trouser pocket, says he'll vote Aye because it's better than no deal and even though (paraphrasing) it's bad and has huge holes.
Sheryll Murray pops up to mention fish, soberly. No one's listening at this point as the sound of lunch preparation echoes through the Slough of Parliament.
Barry Sheerman says he will vote for the deal which is "much better" than he expected.

File under "Very Low Bar".
Meaningful meaningless proceedings winding down. Summary:

It's a great deal (it isn't)

It's a bad deal but better than no deal (it isn't)

We can do fish, services and security at some time in the future (we can't, adequately)

Chargrilled ribeye steak on the menu, £9.19
Only interest in the vote is which Labour MPs will abstain or vote Nay (and how Starmer will react).

Johnson to do a press conf at 5pm (5:20 as he's a very important chap).

Thank you for reading as my brains dribble out of the hole I made banging my head against the desk.

More from Brexit

They have started in the Scottish case

Looks like a near-concession that the side letter is Padfield-compliant

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I’m torn on how to approach the idea of luck. I’m the first to admit that I am one of the luckiest people on the planet. To be born into a prosperous American family in 1960 with smart parents is to start life on third base. The odds against my very existence are astronomical.


I’ve always felt that the luckiest people I know had a talent for recognizing circumstances, not of their own making, that were conducive to a favorable outcome and their ability to quickly take advantage of them.

In other words, dumb luck was just that, it required no awareness on the person’s part, whereas “smart” luck involved awareness followed by action before the circumstances changed.

So, was I “lucky” to be born when I was—nothing I had any control over—and that I came of age just as huge databases and computers were advancing to the point where I could use those tools to write “What Works on Wall Street?” Absolutely.

Was I lucky to start my stock market investments near the peak of interest rates which allowed me to spend the majority of my adult life in a falling rate environment? Yup.
The entire discussion around Facebook’s disclosures of what happened in 2016 is very frustrating. No exec stopped any investigations, but there were a lot of heated discussions about what to publish and when.


In the spring and summer of 2016, as reported by the Times, activity we traced to GRU was reported to the FBI. This was the standard model of interaction companies used for nation-state attacks against likely US targeted.

In the Spring of 2017, after a deep dive into the Fake News phenomena, the security team wanted to publish an update that covered what we had learned. At this point, we didn’t have any advertising content or the big IRA cluster, but we did know about the GRU model.

This report when through dozens of edits as different equities were represented. I did not have any meetings with Sheryl on the paper, but I can’t speak to whether she was in the loop with my higher-ups.

In the end, the difficult question of attribution was settled by us pointing to the DNI report instead of saying Russia or GRU directly. In my pre-briefs with members of Congress, I made it clear that we believed this action was GRU.