On the topic of which, two varieties of nightmare client for lawyers advising on contracts (or treaties).
One is the client who, in his enthusiasm to get an “oven ready deal” just didn’t bother to read or understand the contract (or treaty) he was about to sign before signing it.
The other is the client who (like Wotan at the beginning of the Ring) signs an “oven ready” contract (or treaty) in order to achieve an objective (building Walhall; winning an election) in the expectation that Loge/his lawyers will later find a way of wriggling out of the deal.
Simon is right about the legal status of the Protocol. . But, as he says, and as when you have agreed headline terms, it hits your reputation if you wriggle out of what you have agreed in principle.
And this relationship is not “one shot”: the UK will need things from the EU for decades.
And the WA - and the Northern Ireland Protocol - really is binding.
This is the Govt as Wotan, unwilling to comply with the agreed bargain once the objective has been achieved, and relying on some hapless Loge to bail it out. Not a story that ended well.
Or as @DavidGauke pithily put it.
