Thread by @jonworth

So Johnson thinks he can replace the Northern Ireland backstop with "alternative arrangements", and 🇪🇺 will agree to that.

Sorry Johnson, but that is not going to work.

Unlike the Tory Party, 🇪🇺 actually wants workable proposals, and not just 🦄.

And unlike the Tory Party, 🇪🇺 knows No Deal - what Johnson is threatening if he doesn't get what he wants - is much worse for 🇬🇧 than for 🇪🇺.

Johnson - in his BBC interview today - also left room for a fudge, saying that the detail of the NI border question could be left for a later date.

No.

It was one of 🇪🇺's top three priorities for the first phase.

There are overtones of 🇬🇧 imperial arrogance to all of this, and the assumption that 🇪🇺 will fold, or that it will abandon 🇮🇪.

There is no evidence whatsoever that either of those is possible, let alone likely.

So when Johnson's bluster meets the cold reality of 🇪🇺 in July it is all going to fail pretty quickly.

The question then of course is what he does instead?

Really goes for No Deal, and then Commons will try to stop him. Or tries his luck with a General Election.

/ends