Remarkable Commons scenes just now as deputy speaker Rosie Winterton named, and thus expelled, SNP MP Drew Hendry from the chamber. Hendry refused to resume his seat when instructed after shouting “Undemocratic” during a debate on the Internal Market Bill. In non-Covid times SNP MPs used to march out en masse…

In our LIVE with LITTLEWOOD CHRISTMAS SPECIAL – tonight at 6pm – we’ll be joined by a galaxy of guests to discuss the highs and the lows of 2020.

Join us for free-rolling debate and discussion featuring the Spectator’s KATE ANDREWS; the Times’ TOM WHIPPLE; Spiked’s BRENDAN O’NEILL; talkRADIO’s MIKE GRAHAM; the Telegraph’s MADELINE GRANT; writer and commentator ALEX DEANE; Guido Fawkes’ TOM HARWOOD; strategist and lobbyist MATTHEW ELLIOTT and political YouTuber MAHYAR TOUSI.

Along the way they’ll be joined by pollster PATRICK BASHAM; former government special adviser JAMES PRICE and many more!

Join in the debate as we sort the Grinches from the Galacticos – LIVE – TONIGHT at 6PM – here or on YouTube

The final PMQs outing before Christmas (EU negotiations willing) saw Boris and Starmer go in all clichés repeating. At this point, Starmer’s spineless flip-flopping, and policy failures in Labour-controlled Wales, have opened him up to easy attack from Boris, though Sir Keir’s final question, reading from the Wellingborough Tories’ December Newsletter showed a little more personality than usual. It was not a notable session and we learnt nothing new.

One distraction from the dull proceedings, however, was deputy Labour Party leader Angela Rayner, who turned up in full office Christmas party garb; Doc Martens, what Guido can only describe as “Bet Lynch leggings” and a long cardigan. Earlier this week, Sir Lindsay told off a new-intake male MP for not wearing a tie during his virtual question. Women, somewhat unfairly, don’t have an official dress code in the Commons, though surely there has to be a minimum floor?

With news that a Brexit EU trade deal might just be signed after all, Guido is setting this simple symbolic test to see if the deal will cut the mustard and allow this country to be truly sovereign. If the deal passes this test, Guido would be minded to endorse the deal’s ratification. If it does not, Guido will likely oppose. Here it is:

“Does the deal allow the UK to repeal the EU’s stupid directive forcing websites to put up those annoying ‘Accept Cookies’ banners?”

The hated Cookie Law started as an EU Directive adopted in May 2011. Forced to comply with the EU’s order, the UK amended its Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) to include this mindless hassle. A perfect example of one of those annoyances that costs business time and money to help no one. Only geeks know what cookies are, and everyone else mindlessly clicks to accept them so they can get on to the content they’re after anyway.

It seems trivial, yet this small annoyance is indicative of the hundreds of thousands of trivial and anti-business regulations that have unaccountably poured out from Brussels for decades, rubber-stamped by a servile parliament. If we can repeal the Cookie Law, that will indicate a far deeper sovereignty that allows us to do so much more.

So this is the test. If the deal lets the UK repeal the cookie law, and by implication many thousands like it, that is a real Brexit. That is a Brexit which lets Britain deregulate. If not, Guido would advise MPs to vote down the deal…

For a more comprehensive, less symbolic list of the more consequential benefits of Brexit, see: What Are the Benefits of Brexit?

Butting in on a lame anti-mask tweet from provocateur Paul Joseph Watson, Edwina Currie, the former Health Minister and close friend of John Major, decided take Watson down a peg or two. Edwina revealed a little more about her sex life than Guido expected of a Wednesday morning. Pegging Watson’s tweet beneath her own, the former Prime Minister’s lover revealed a deep truth she must have been toying with for some time. John Major is presumably too bussy to comment.

Idiot. Try it, you might enjoy it. https://t.co/sjjnAuYivN

— Edwina Currie (@Edwina_Currie) December 16, 2020

Coincidentally it was John Major’s Government that in 1994 passed the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, legalising buggery…