Pole dancing while Brussels prevaricates.

Johnson-Arcuri investigation to review affair with another woman

Says the Graub. There is hope! Johnson might have had more affaires! The American poledancing entrepreneur is back with a tale of cruel abandonment, and another candidate  affaire-ee has also come forward. Happy days! This will swing it with those fisherman in Scotland!

In other news, two academics have warned us that trade deals can take a long time to complete. 'Anand Menon is director of the UK in a Changing Europe and professor of European politics and foreign affairs at King’s College London. Catherine Barnard is a senior fellow at the UK in a Changing Europe and professor of EU law at Cambridge University'. No partisanship there, obviously. Maybe a bit of anticipated schadenfreude though?

 Even if the Tories gain a majority, the UK faces a long wait for a trade deal with the EU to be negotiated  

Never heard that before! If only I had known in 2016!  Even longer if any of the other parties gain majorities, but let that pass. With the precision for which academics are loved the world over, the hammer blow appears early:

And now for some semantics. This government and its predecessor have insisted on using the phrase “implementation period” to describe transition and that is the wording which appears in the bill. The reference to implementation is, to say the least, profoundly misleading. Why? Because we have absolutely nothing to implement.

It could be sinister indeed:

Johnson has said that he will not ask for an extension to the transition period, and so many fear a new cliff edge or no-deal Brexit on 1 January 2021

Let's hope Hilary Benn is re-elected. Luckily, there is always work for lawyers in the EC:

.. the EU will wish to scrutinise very carefully what dealignment actually means in practice. Clause by clause, chapter by chapter, the negotiations will be painstaking and time consuming. [And] it is conceivable each [nation state] will enjoy a veto.[Finally] ...because this is a deal intended to make trade harder rather than easier, we will be dealing solely with losses.

Perhaps we need some semantic analysis of the term 'deal'? Sounds wise to 'keep no deal on the table'?