At some point a lot of British commentators and analysts need to come to terms with the fact there is no such thing as an unconditional alliance. This kind of special pleading does not work with the EU or US when it comes to their constitutional red lines https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/no-deal-brexit-would-be-bad-for-the-west-gs8tvmztf?utm_source=POLITICO.EU&utm_campaign=c81164cd50-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_11_13_06_59&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_10959edeb5-c81164cd50-189711085

The Maastricht treaty is the constitutional foundations of emerging EU statehood. Their core constitutional structures around the four freedoms provide the basis for the EU state. The UK needs to face a reality where it cannot dictate terms on such a level to a stronger state

The faster the UK faces the realities of the asymmetry of power it needs to manage with what is a state that surrounds it the more likely the UK can build a stable position for itself within the transatlantic alliance system.

In effect, many of the same arguments Forsyth uses as special pleading for the UK were regularly used by those who claimed the EU needs to bend over backwards to keep Turkey happy.

These arguments are not going to wash with the EU in either case.

Such special pleading by pundits signalling the level of panic within UK leadership factions looks particularly desperate at a moment where the risks of Scottish separation generated by a project celebrated such pundits risks rapidly collapsing the military usefulness of the UK