This morning it all still seems so bizarre

A Conservative government is risking a full-blown constitutional crisis and destroying its international reputation over...

...increasing the role of public sector in subsidising otherwise uncompetitive private sector businesses

Odd

'Conservative' in that last tweet to be said in exactly the same way Neil Kinnock said 'Labour' in his famous speech on Militant

Missing in all this - as conspicuous as a missing witness statement - is the failure of UK government to explain why it wants to depart from EU State aid rules

What exactly is the UK's alternative vision of State aid?

And why does it require this big departure?

This is the gap

UK currently appears to have no firm plan yet for what to do with State aid post Brexit: https://www.ft.com/content/c28c68f4-6d56-4b67-8ac6-8f454f6c2856

So there seems to be no concrete UK proposal in place to explain triggering this crisis *now*

So why trigger this crisis at this point?

Something does not add up

If this was really about State aid, govt could have already published its policy on post-Brexit State aid and got it endorsed by parliament

UK then could say to EU: look, this is our State aid policy but it does not fit with A10 of the Irish Protocol, what can we do about it?

UK and EU (and esp Ireland) could then have a grown-up and sensible (I know, ho ho) discussion about reconciling different approaches to State aid, based on concrete proposals

But UK is picking this fight even before it knows its State aid policy

And picking the fight *now*

There is a mismatch between (a) the high-level drama (expressly breaking rule of law, undermining our future credibility as negotiating partner) and (b) the particular policy issue at stake

(a) is not explicable in terms of (b)

State aid seems to be a pretext for something else