@montie Talking about “punishment” dodges the real issues. The EU has been somewhat more inflexible than it could have been. But the dilemma and trilemma were always there and never faced up to by many leavers.
@montie The dilemma is that you either stick close to EU rules (rule taker) or don’t (trade/customs barriers up, huge problems for businesses whose business is structured round frictionless trade, and angry Leave voters never warned about that disruption).
@montie The trilemma is the Irish border: you have to choose one of: (1) a hard Irish border; (2) a hard NI/GB border; (3) staying in a customs union and single market (at least for goods and agri) with the EU. No world exists in which you can avoid all three.
@montie The dilemma and trilemma have always been known about to those who think about these things (or follow those who do). It’s a shame many leavers took no notice until too late.
