Thread by @jonworth

I have been thinking a lot about the Internal Market Bill and Brexiter reactions to Biden and the House of Lords vote, and have written a new blog post:

"The Internal Market Bill and Brexiters still unable to face the Brexit Trilemma"

jonworth.eu/the-internal-m…

The essence: I don't think there is a serious denial from the UK Govt that Internal Market Bill breaks international law - I hence disagree somewhat with this from @DavidHenigUK - it's not they think the US and EU are wrong, but that it does not matter

https://twitter.com/DavidHenigUK/status/1326059591705255940

Why does it not matter?

Because Brexiters - Redwood, Johnson himself, Hannan and their ilk - are still one step behind

They still refuse to acknowledge the trade offs in @rdanielkelemen's Brexit Trilemma

The trilemma is explained in full here:

https://twitter.com/rdanielkelemen/status/1308301263507865601

A Brexit Deal, having agreed the Withdrawal Agreement and NI Protocol last year, cements the UK into quadrant A of the trilemma - and to do so requires NI-rest UK border infra...

... and that's why the offending clauses of the Internal Market Bill are still there.

They basically still give Brexiters the cover to aim for 🦄 land - D on the diagram - which is actually impossible to reach.

In other words: for the House of Lords, for Biden, for the EU, the IM Bill is a question of legality and respecting previous commitments (or not) - and viewed this way the UK Govt's reluctance to just fold behind the House of Lords position looks strange

But for Brexiters, the IM Bill is a means to keep the option of a 🦄 Brexit open still

But everyone is running out of time, with the clock now ticking loudly towards the end of the transition period at the end of 2020...

And all of this... inexorably leads us towards No Deal.

Because *any* Deal now forces Brexiters to face some trade offs - and the battle over the Internal Market Bill shows they are still not willing to face those.

/ends