@Songsofexperience
No. The UK wants access to a market without any strings attached. There are always trade offs involved in a trade deal.
Don't be so naive!
The EU also wants the same kind of access and their own best interest rade offs.
Stalemate was always on the cards.
That's what all the politicking was about in the first place. Problem was Cameron et al misjudged the political temperature here and various EU leaders, European heads, have done the same. Bluffs have been called many times over, and will be again and again and again until the law runs out.
Anyone with an iota of sense could see this coming. I've said as mivh here and in RL for a few years now... always been told I don't understand, or am a brainwashed Brexiteer, or Remainer, depending on the other person's ideology!
This isn't a trade deal being negotiated. The EU needs to survive the first country leaving. The UK needs not to give up anything, not even the smallest thing. Both to save face, stall civil unrest and upheaval of political systems.
Had we had any honest polticians who could have worked properly on a deal that both sides could live with this would all have been done and dusted a couple of years ago. Gentlemans handshake, nod to the bits that need further wrangling and everyone moves on.
But no! We found willy wavers all around. Sycophants willing to make things worse for self aggrandisement and populations across Europe willing to fall back on jingiosm and historical enmity when fed it by an ever gleeful media!
Who knows what the fuck will happen? (best answer, nodody but we all have our guesses). But it will be a long term polotical disaster that all sides will fall over themselves trying to obfuscate... and maybe Covid will be the perfect smoke screen for long enough!
Holding to a partisan side is daft. Whatever happens, whatver the outcome, the whole thing has been a fucking disaster made worse by the arrogance of people supposedly representing their countries.