Thread by @hhesterm

Sovereignty as a dual-use weapon. A very short thread. Sovereignty is again much talked about regarding the EU-UK deal. /1

https://twitter.com/NJ_Timothy/status/1334620732614205440

But (as previously discussed) sovereignty is a poor fit for detail (and detail is not really published nor do a lot of people do that sort of thing). E.g. enforcement is about sovereignty, yes, but every FTA and indeed many other agreements have enforcement provisions. /2

So "sovereignty" is short-hand for "we want less in that regard" (because "we want none" would mean that the UK would have to get out of the WTO and all of its new FTAs, so I don't think anyone means "we want none").

At the end of the day, when the deal is done, the sovereignty discussion can turn either way: "we cannot have this" or "great, our insistence on sovereignty won the day". Which way will it turn?

That's really hard to predict. Hence the dual use weapon.