Iain Dale: It was Phillip Lee, but could have been me

Plus: Damian Collins and his useless Select Committee shot themselves in the foot this week. Let grandstanding committee chairmen be warned.

Alex Morton: The EU negotiation. First, let’s use the velvet glove. But if that doesn’t work, the iron fist.

We need to be tough – without a deal, they should get no money from us, reduced troop levels in Eastern Europe, less help on refugee issues in the Mediterranean.

Henry Newman: Navigating the EU Withdrawal Bill through unamended without a majority is nightmarish – but possible

Labour have sunk efforts to trap us in the Single Market. A compromise should kick the Customs Union can down the road. Which leaves the ‘meaningful’ vote.

Henry Hill: SNP blueprint for independence alienates left-wing supporters

Also: female Tories press the Prime Minister for action on Ulster abortion law; and Davies urges Party to unite over Brexit.

Britain and abortion. Women are more likely to support new restrictions.

It’s a counter-intuitive take – but it’s what the sum of opinion polling in recent years tends to suggest.

If May listened to the Gang of Three and stayed in the Customs Union she would not survive

David Miliband, Nicky Morgan and Nick Clegg are urging from the sidelines a breach of faith with the British people on Brexit.

WATCH: Morgan says she’s not ‘entirely surprised’ at Johnson keeping his job

“I think we’re all surprised though by quite how wide the bounds of collective responsibility are being stretched now.”

Iain Dale: I’m not out to get Bercow, but I believe that his time is up

Plus: Willetts loses at least one of his brains. Labour frets about losing Lewisham East (which it shouldn’t do). And: Morgan and Clarke, not the Brexiteers, are the real obsessives.

The risks to May if she backs off leaving the Customs Union

“I’m not saying that there would be an organised push, but the letters would just go in to Graham Brady,” one senior pro-Leave backbencher told this site yesterday.

David Jones: Brexit. Why we must all now ready ourselves for no deal – and WTO terms

That means commissioning physical and digital infrastructure and recruiting necessary personnel. It also means offering tangible reassurance to business.

WATCH: Morgan – “Mutual recognition of regulations is the way to go”

The Treasury Select Committee chair says that “we will continue to look for any drift back to some kind of ideological hard Brexit.”

Peter Thompson: The inconsistencies, contortions and self-contradictions of the case for votes at 16

On what basis would they then be prevented from appearing in pornography? Should they then not be tried as adults and sent to adult prisons? And so on.

Votes at 16. Handle with care.

We feel a commission, a working group, an inquiry coming in – to look these inconsistencies, accidents of history and quirks, to see if some tidying-up is required.

After his success on reading, Gibb gets his way on times tables

The Schools Minister has been a near-constant presence at the forefront of educational reform. It’s good that Hinds is listening to him.

Higher taxes. Social insurance. New Commissions. Reforming NI. Debate on health and social care gathers pace.

But the collapse of the Tory manifesto social care plan, plus the Government’s lack of a workable Commons majority, all but rule out radical change to the system.