Opinion: We are far from out of the Brexit woods

Despite the passage of the Brexit withdrawal Agreement, the EU may struggle to force the UK to comply with Northern Ireland protocol commitments, argues Professor Ronan McCrea (UCL Laws). There is a famous scene in the film The Life of Brian in which a man is about to be stoned to death for saying the word "Jehovah". Realising that he is going to be executed anyway he starts jumping around and shouting "Jehovah! Jehovah!" When the Pharisee, played by John Cleese shouts "you're only making it worse for yourself!" the man replies that he is going to be stoned to death anyway so he might as well do as he wishes. This scene sprang to mind when I recently heard Stefaan de Rynck, Michel Barnier's chief of staff, speak to an audience at my home university, University College London. De Rynck made it clear that the EU would take a very dim view if the UK dragged its feet over implementing its commitments agreed in the Northern Ireland protocol to the UK's Brexit agreement. While that should be reassuring to the Irish Government, the problem is that, if what Boris Johnson has been saying is true, it appears the UK is heading for a form of Brexit under which the UK will not agree to follow EU single market rules and is therefore inevitably facing significant restrictions in its access to that single market. This leaves the EU in the position of the Pharisee in the The Life of Brian telling the man facing stoning that he is making things worse for himself.