Plans to rewrite parts of the EU withdrawal agreement are causing a wee storm in some quarters. The EU is demanding we ditch them or risk jeopardizing a trade deal. Same old EU, then. With national law trumping international law, we can do this, and we will. We are leaving the whole apparatus of the EU and therefore have to tinker with the agreement to ensure the UK is treated as one country. For the EU to resort to threats is laughable when you consider how devious they've been already in thwarting every attempt to strike a reasonable trade deal. At 1000 I joined a virtual and private meeting of the Defence Select Committee for a fascinating session taking evidence from those who work in the World Service. We listened to senior journalists and editors give their take on world affairs, especially China. In the afternoon, I took the motorcycle down to Weymouth to visit Dorset Trade Skills, a wonderful organisation that caters for those over 14 who, for one reason or another, are not in school. David and Mandy Hunter run the organisation, which has moved into relatively new premises off the Dorchester Road. I met the staff and some of the students during a two hour visit that was most interesting. The students study more practical subjects, such as masonry and carpentry. They'd kindly laid on some sandwiches, which were most welcome. In coronavirus news, Matt Hancock announced "Operation Moonshot", which aims to have the capacity to test ten million people a day. The latest figures show that infections are still high. Two thousand nine hundred nineteen new cases were recorded in the UK as Portugal and Hungary were added to England's quarantine list. In further health news, the disruption to hospitals in England during the pandemic has meant the number of patients facing long waits for routine operations has soared. More than two million people on the waiting list - half the total - have been waiting more than 18 weeks, the highest since records began in 2007. Some 83,000 have waited over a year, up from 2,000 before the pandemic. Finally, the government announced a "truce" on enforcement action for tenants facing eviction in England and Wales this Christmas. It also said that evictions would not be enforced in areas subject to local lock-downs as the pandemic continues.