One wonders how long Lord Frost will retain his new position. The personnel decisions made by the PM are nothing if not frequent, ruthless and mercurial.

The whole affair is very curious. While I am sure that Lord Frost’s elevation owes much to his relationship with the PM and the perceived success of the Brexit negotiation, it is very curious indeed that allegedly it took a threat to resign to secure this new role.
A role which is needed (although might have been structured differently) but was to a large effect previously undertaken (with reasonable success) by Michael Gove who one might imagine may not be entirely happy with this diminishment of his responsibilities.
What might have happened to have resulted in this dramatic and to some extent destructive move (which appears to have been played out in the context of a wider struggle that saw Oliver Lewis (previously Lord Frost’s (LF) negotiation deputy)?
The original sin, of course, is the agreement to the Northern Ireland Protocol. Who knows who did what to who or thought what about what but my speculation is the PM either did not understand the consequences of the Protocol or was assured they could be successfully addressed.
Either way, it is his responsibility. I’m not sure the consequences of the Protocol are fully understood. The PM has successfully delivered Brexit, his mission statement, but in so doing has presided over, willed and in effect approved a rupture in the union.
My suspicion is that this is taken very seriously indeed. And as a result any wheeze, scheme, idea etc that contributes to addressing the (in this context) faults of the NIP, this rupture of the union, receives a very friendly audience (also see the IMB).
A short while ago, a very strange event occurred. As part of its new vaccine export policy, the EU almost triggered / triggered and then retracted A16. This foolish misstep rightly received considerable opprobrium.
HMG saw this as an opportunity to address its issues with the NIP. This might have been advanced quietly or loudly. We saw a ‘loud’ response in the letter Gove sent to Maros Sefcovic, the tone of which was reminiscent of the combative Vote Leave approach to the negotiations.
But then something surprising happened. The letter’s sabre rattling seems all but forgotten when after the Gove / Sefcovic meeting both sides issue a joint statement in which they talk of their ‘frank but constructive discussion’ and state their ‘full commitment’ to the NIP.
The combative rhetoric is abandoned, the temperature is lowered, and the primacy of the NIP as the legal and political context in which all related issues must be solved is upheld, in the process diminishing the practical viability of A16 as an instrument to effect change.
You can perhaps look at this in 2 ways. Either (i) HMG (represented by Gove) missed a huge opportunity to address the offending parts of the NIP or (ii) the opportunity was hugely overstated, the letter did more harm than good, and as a result HMG / the EU decided to move on.
Either way, and yes perhaps for many other different reasons (this is all speculation) just over a week later Michael Gove’s EU responsibilities are transferred to Lord Frost who becomes cabinet minister responsible for the relationship with the EU. /ends

More from Yet Another Columnist

I tend to agree with this - of course many things can still go wrong...but (certainly on the UK side) as the list of outstanding issues decreases and as the cost of no deal becomes more apparent deal momentum will increase.


I find it most amusing that people invest so much value in public statements, briefings, tabloid headlines, the tweets of obscure backbenchers etc. Cherchez les fundamentals!

There is a deep vein of analytical pessimism in one particular direction, which, whether correct or not, is noteworthy. On the one hand, a firm belief in the fundamentals - gravity exists - but on the other hand those fundamentals are not meaningful to the final decision.

But gravity does exist! Whether one likes it or not. We do not have wings. Or feathers. And the realisation of the fundamentals will impact the political calculation (though timing differences may apply).

You don’t have to invest any particular optimism or see any virtue in the principal players to make this point.

More from Society

So, as the #MegaMillions jackpot reaches a record $1.6B and #Powerball reaches $620M, here's my advice about how to spend the money in a way that will truly set you, your children and their kids up for life.

Ready?

Create a private foundation and give it all away. 1/

Let's stipulate first that lottery winners often have a hard time. Being publicly identified makes you a target for "friends" and "family" who want your money, as well as for non-family grifters and con men. 2/

The stress can be damaging, even deadly, and Uncle Sam takes his huge cut. Plus, having a big pool of disposable income can be irresistible to people not accustomed to managing wealth.
https://t.co/fiHsuJyZwz 3/

Meanwhile, the private foundation is as close as we come to Downton Abbey and the landed aristocracy in this country. It's a largely untaxed pot of money that grows significantly over time, and those who control them tend to entrench their own privileges and those of their kin. 4

Here's how it works for a big lotto winner:

1. Win the prize.
2. Announce that you are donating it to the YOUR NAME HERE Family Foundation.
3. Receive massive plaudits in the press. You will be a folk hero for this decision.
4. Appoint only trusted friends/family to board. 5/
I’ll address every nonsense argument and lie used to defend the suicidal gender ideology Thats in vogue today:

3:45 - “So what if you don’t have gametes?”

It’s called a birth defect. You’re still male or female.


~5:00 *nonsense trying to say the sexes of seahorses could be swapped coz male carry the eggs*

male doesn’t produce eggs, he produces the sperm. He’s still the male. If I impregnated a chick then carried the amniotic sac in a backpack ‘til the baby was done I’ll still be male🤦‍♂️

5:10 - we could say there’s 4 sexes of fruit fly cause there’s 3 producers of different sized sperm

No. They’re still producing sperm. They’re males. This is idiotic. Is this whole video like this? (Probably. 99% likely. Abandon hope.)

~6:10 - hermaphroditism and sequential hermaphroditism exists therefore....

No. Some animals being hermaphrodites, which is meaningless w/o the existence of binary sex to contrast it to, still doesn’t make gender ideology or transgenderism valid.

Intersex ≠ transgenderism 🙄

6:20 - bilateral gynandromorphism is a disorder in some species (not in humans). Has nothing to do w/ “gender” or transgenderism.

Ova-testes in humans are also a disorder, usually found in those w/ the karyotype disorders that you ppl also try to appropriate (extra X’s/Y’s).

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