Labour should definitely be putting forward a vision and agenda for a post-Brexit reality. It has been cack, but there’s no way of going back and uncacking it.

It’d be best for the country if the Tories did too, and very interesting. Labour has a cleaner slate, whereas the Tories have four or five main competing visions. They’re not all mutually exclusive but there’s definitely tension between some of them and at some point one or two will have to be given more prominence, which’ll leave some parts of the Brexit alliance feeling betrayed. The first question though is whether Johnson and Frost can keep creating nonsense arguments with the EU to rile up enough people so that they don’t need to bother with anything more than empty slogans.

The first question though is whether Johnson and Frost can keep creating nonsense arguments with the EU to rile up enough people so that they don’t need to bother with anything more than empty slogans.'"

Things are only obvious to those who like you think things are obvious, to the rest of us without the insight you possess not so.

Not just me but to Mild Rover and anybody who actually takes notice of what’s going on in the U.K. regarding the EU.

This is definitely their strategy. The EU offer just received really should undercut them because it goes so much further than anyone could realistically have expected them to. From a negotiating point of view that's potentially difficult for the EU because they really don't have much more to give before it becomes impossible (for starters beginning to **** off other parties who have existing EU trade deals which this is much more generous than).

The Johnson government however needs to continue to bogeyman the EU for political purposes so there is a growing expectation that these negotiations will fail and the UK will trigger Article 16. Regardless of the vast damage that could do to our economy it will escalate and prolong the Brexit war, purely for Johnson's political interests. There's also the obvious argument that allowing NI to continue to remain in the single market will expose the folly of Brexit as they don't experience the shortages or relative economic decline that the UK mainland suffers.

A very well considered post - the problem the Tories have is that haven't invested as they should and at the risk of moving even further left they can hardly bite the hand that feeds. There also appears to a rift in the party between the free marketers e.g. Sunak and the interventionalists e.g. Boris.

The EU have given a lot the only thing left is the jurisdiction of the EC?

To the businesses affected by the restrictions what the EU have offered will be more than acceptable especially when NI voted to stay in the EU. I doubt many even care about the ECJ and that is the corner Boris and Frost have painted themselves into. They have already stated that the new EU offer is not acceptable so they now face being shown to be the ones who caused the protocol to collapse not the EU. This will also enable the EU to impose whatever sanctions on us because it was not them who were being unreasonable.
I look forward to seeing how Boris & Co. get onto of this mess of their own making because they believed they could outflank the EU. The Daily Mail was even lauding the offer from the EU as a success for the U.K. and Frost negotiation skills, I wonder what they think now.

Before coming up with slogans and red busses (or both), Bojo & Co should really have worked out just how any type of Brexit could work but, they went for "let's get something signed and we can worry about the detail later" and surprise, surprise, we're in a bit of a mess (understatement).
I suppose the Brexit chickens would eventually come home to roost.

At least we're all much better off than we were

Do you mean the ECJ? If so that's an impossibility. The court is the ultimate legal regulator/arbitor of disputes in the Single Market. If Northern Ireland is to remain in the Single Market it has to follow those rules.

The court protects the integrity of the market and the UK has historically done quite well out of its decisions. Johnson and Frost know what they are requesting is an impossibility and are trying to create yet another EU bogeyman. People in NI certainly don't care so if they were interested in outcomes rather than politics they wouldn't be playing this game.

If it's all about face saving for the UK government I wonder if some sort of solution could be to install Northern Ireland into EFTA which has its own court. Of course that simply follows ECJ rulings and case law so it would be utterly the same but it would probably give the UK government a fig leaf. I don't know if there are other implications, political, legal or economic, by NI following this course though, or if it's compatible with the special NI customs status. Or if the EFTA members would welcome NI with all its complications and baggage. But it might be an option. As ever I'm simply not sure the UK are negotiating in good faith as they appear to want conflict rather than solutions.

I agree - if we all play by the rules then the court shouldn't be necessary. Johnson has done this country a disservice by his appalling behaviour. How could anyone negotiate in good faith with us? We are not the size of China who are so big they can do as they please.

I'm surprised a think tank hasn't been assembled on here, all our problems could be solved almost immediately., Boris and all those pesky little rascals they call a government should be locked in the tower of London till they learn some sense.

I know it doesn't appeal to you but the world is a complicated place and just stamping your feet and demanding change doesn't often work. It appears to be the Johnsonian approach as well, which is probably why he's proving so ineffectual as Prime Minister.

We can live in hope

I think most of our contributors would do better in a think tank than Johnson and the rascals do in government… or would do on the Sin Bin, tbh.

And the big difference is that Johnson and his clown government are paid to get things right.
There is one absolute certainty, I'm significantly better at my day job than than Bojo & Co and I dont tell lies to my customers or try to mislead them on a daily basis.