Stupid is as ERG does

A headline in the Torygraph:

"EU sausage laws just tip of the Brexit iceberg"

"Boris Johnson is under increasing pressure from hardline Tory Brexiteers to revise the NIP, blah, blah, blah, etc"

I am fed up with saying this, but it needs to be said anyway.

The EU did not foce Brexit on the UK, it was the UK's choice.

The referendum did not define Brexit, other than to leave the EU or not. There were several choices as to the final form of Brexit. May chose to define Brexit as leaving the SM and CU. Johnson did not change that definition.

Once that was decided, there had to be a regulatory border. May chose one across Ireland, that the ERG and other Brexiteers rejected. Johnson had to take the other choice, a border in the Irish Sea.

Unless there is dynamic alignment in a number of trade and regulatory areas, there will have to be a border between Britain and the EU and between Britain and NI, that was Johnson's choice.

He gave David Frost the negotiating mandate, he was releacted on that deal, Parliamant then ratified the WA, NIP and TCA in full, with minimum of scrutiny.

This is the result.

None of this is the EU's fault.

“The ERG voted in favour of the Protocol but Mr [David] Jones said that was on the basis it would be a temporary solution and be superseded by a UK-EU trade deal.”

Looks like the ERG have mistaken Boris Johnson’s Protocol for Theresa May’s backstop.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. But remember, the ERG's "star chamber" went through the TCA and declared it acceptable.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Johnson can lie to his party, Parliament and the electorate, but he cannot lie to the International community, and not for that to have consequences. The WA and NIP are international treaties, negotiated and ratified at speed.

Regret at leisure.