Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory
Brexiteers seem in two minds. Either the EU has blinked and the new proposals on the NIP are a victory for the UK’s tough as nails negotiating tactics. Or, this is Brexit in name only, until the role of the ECJ is totally destroyed the UK can never be free.
The EU’s proposals do have a sting in the tail, the UK has to actually build the border posts like it said it would, keep records like it said it would and share the data with EU officials, like it said it would. Shocking, I know.
But like a dodgy firm the UK government has moved on and found another reason it cannot honour its contract. It used to be sausages, now it is the ECJ and unlike sausages which the UK government must have been alarmed to discover was easily solvable, the ECJ is a red line. That is why they picked it, of course.
The next move will be interesting, back down and take the deal on offer, or double down and wreck the whole deal.
Wrecking the deal would be appallingly stupid, immensely damaging, utterly pointless and suicidally incompetent.
So for this government an attractive option.
.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.