Thread by @DaveKeating

Indeed. The fisheries issue is a red herring, if you'll pardon the pun.

If there is #NoDealBrexit it will not be because of a dispute over fish, as the UK media is suggesting, but because of UK's refusal to follow some LPF rules in exchange for tariff-free access to EU market.

https://twitter.com/lionelbarber/status/1332448771419099136

There is a reason the UK briefs as if fisheries is the main stumbling bloc. It's a very small (though very emotional) part of the economy and the EU's stance is not very sympathetic. But it's a side issue.

LPF and governance goes to the heart of what #Brexit will and won't be.

The UK side doesn't want to talk about LPF because it highlights the lack of thinking that went into the #Brexit plan before the referendum.

#Norway & #Switzerland were used as examples, but then after the vote their models were immediately ruled out because they're rule-takers.

UK is asking to be 1st European country given access to the EU's single market without aligning to EU rules.

In 1990s 🇳🇴🇮🇸&🇨🇭 couldn't negotiate such an arrangement. UK thought it could.

UK asking for much less access than them, so EU is asking for proportionally less alignment

Any degree of access was always going to entail a proportional degree of regulatory alignment guarantees.

The Leave campaign wasn't honest with the British people about this. That miscalculation is now having consequences.

🐟 is a distraction from that.