Interview: Francois insists that the ERG wants the backstop ditched altogether – not tweaked

“In my personal opinion, Olly Robbins should go to the Tower, in which case he should arrive by river.”

Steven Edginton: The BBC’s Question Time last week. Abbott was the victim of her own rudeness – not of racism. As I saw at first-hand.

The only explanation I can find is that she mistakenly assumed I was just another Tory public school boy, to whom she did not need to bother giving the time of day.

Britain’s defences are far weaker than the public realises

A new book, White Flag?, tries to sound the alarm. Will anyone listen?

Lord Ashcroft: A Defence Secretary who believes that the UK should consider getting stuck in to other people’s wars

At a ConHome conference interview yesterday, Williamson suggested we should do so if it will save or improve lives without disproportionate cost.

Lord Ashcroft: How’s this for a slogan? The Conservatives will make your life a bit better.

And: Churchill-mania, Moggmania, and the passion of Rory Stewart. Plus: too many lobbyists.

Andrew Gimson’s Conference Sketch: Williamson declares that British forces are no longer in retreat

The Defence Secretary outlined a programme of national self-assertion from Ukraine to the South China Sea.

Lord Ashcroft’s Conference Diary: How Leave voters reflect – good humouredly, mostly – on being called knuckle-dragging bigots

Plus: Labour anti-semitism, May’s African dancing. Will Mordaunt speak to the conference? And: will Russia take on NATO?

White Flag or Union Flag?

As our proprietor and his co-author prepare to release a new book on defence, we say again what we’ve said before about the implications of Brexit for the armed forces.

WATCH: “Are you going to investigate the Remain campaign?” Oakeshott asks Cadwalladr

“It is not about Remain or Leave,” the Observer journalist replies – while notably failing to say “yes”.

Iain Dale: What happened at the President’s Club was no worse than many women’s events

Plus: Vicious Cybernats. Bolton’s brass neck. Widdecombe’s ratings. Johnson’s death wish. And: the courage of my friend Tessa Jowell.

Green, Fox, Brady, Morgan. And live-streaming Rees-Mogg. ConHome’s Party Conference programme.

We pick out five items from it which may be of special interest to our readers and others who will attend.

Iain Dale: Fox was right. Most European countries need to bury their twentieth century history.

Plus: Hammond’s blunder. Peers’ folly. Stephen Hawking is not, repeat not, controlled by MI5. And: my inner Mary Whitehouse meets Katie Hopkins’ slack vagina.

Steve Hilton – moderniser for Brexit

Whatever one’s view of Cameron’s former head of strategy, he cannot simply be written off as some crusty reactionary.

Iain Dale: Prat. Gaffe. Scoop. And Treacherous Bastard. My End of Year Awards.

Plus: Thank you for the three bottles of vintage wine…but you forgot to enclose a note with your name. Christmas, eh?

Iain Dale: What Cameron scribbled in a copy of Call Me Dave

Plus: I stand in for a billionaire. Ten years of Pink News. And: the Michael Meacher I knew.