A morning run and into the House. First up was another meeting of the ESC. At 1030 we took oral evidence from N Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley, who was accompanied by the Director of the NIO, Colin Perry. With the border between North and the Republic the current topic of conversation, we felt it important to hear what Ms Bradley had to say. Regrettably, she didn't really say very much, hiding behind the line that negotiations were on-going. We learnt little, to be honest, about the Government's position, other than a hard border was totally unacceptable. The Committee probed as to whether Ms Bradley thought the Irish and the EU were playing politics with the issue, but she refused to be drawn. There is no doubt in my mind that they are. Indeed, it's being used by the EU to keep us in, of that I have no doubt, and it's a disgrace. There is no reason on earth why this issue cannot be resolved by two sides prepared to deal with the problem pragmatically. My committee colleague, Labour's Kelvin Hopkins, handed out an excellent article by Ray Bassett, a former senior Irish diplomat, who has served as ambassador to Canada, Jamaica and the Bahamas. He was also part of the negotiating team for the Good Friday Agreement. Ms Bradley only had an hour, after which I went downstairs to the Chamber for PMQs. Again, it was pretty uninspiring, with Corbyn reduced to shouting at the PM against a wall of noise from the Conservative Benches. No doubt, Corbyn will edit his session appropriately. A working lunch, before heading to CR 9 for some delegated legislation that I knew was going to run its full three hours, and it did! The SI was giving the go ahead to the creation of two unitary authorities for Dorset. My friend and colleague Christopher Chope, the MP for Christchurch, has never been convinced by the re-organisation and has fought it doggedly from the beginning. There were two parts, both lasting 90 minutes, and Mr Chope spoke for most of the first part, so it was understandable that a few of my colleagues wanted their share of the action in part two. I intervened on many occasions, while listening patiently to the debate. Mr Chope was passionate about his case and said that he was pursuing a judicial review. I am not sure he will be successful, but he has the perfect right to try. The SI was voted through by the committee, which we Dorset MPs were NOT members of, and we all now hope that will be the end of it and councillors can now be voted on to their new authorities next May. There was a vote in the Chamber at 1900 and then home.