Is the government retreating over the Internal Market Bill and Taxation Bill or just clearing the path to a much more orderly no-deal Brexit? Brief explainer of what has and hasn't happened today: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2020/12/government-preparing-cave-over-brexit-or-something-else-going
There are basically two and a half interpretations of the Internal Market and Taxation Bills' lawbreaking clauses. The first is the 'our Brexit strategy is the product of dilettantes', and that the government was sincere in its reasoning for the bills: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2020/12/government-preparing-cave-over-brexit-or-something-else-going
That, genuinely the British government's Brexit strategy really is shaped by people who think that you can cajole or negotiate your way around 'if you don't want a border, you gotta have customs and regulatory alignment'. That's interpretation one: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2020/12/government-preparing-cave-over-brexit-or-something-else-going
Interpretation two is that the government knew exactly what it was doing when it signed up to the protocol, understands that you can't negotiate your way around the border challenge, but just to do the Bills for internal domestic reasons: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2020/12/government-preparing-cave-over-brexit-or-something-else-going
What happens next in interpretation one? A poor strategy meets reality, government caves on most everything, there's a EU-UK FTA. https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2020/12/government-preparing-cave-over-brexit-or-something-else-going
What happens in interpretation two? Well, the joy of the protocol from a Brexiteer ultra perspective is it facilitates a no deal without the security nightmare for Northern Ireland. So we may be heading for no deal, still: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2020/12/government-preparing-cave-over-brexit-or-something-else-going
But the reason why I said that there were 2 & 1/2 interpretations is that some Brexiteers think that the Internal Market BIll is just the first bit of 'look, I tried' theatre, before Boris, who voted for MV3 and put a border in the Irish Sea, caves again: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2020/12/government-preparing-cave-over-brexit-or-something-else-going