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Boris Johnson did not have a British audience in mind when he made his stern warning that an exit from the European Union without a trade deal is almost upon us.
Despite assuring Almost a sweep of the front pages of the Friday papers, the intended recipients of the message were the 27 EU leaders who sat down for dinner in Brussels shortly after the short interview was published.
So to a large extent, British diplomats made sure the EU27 was aware of their arrival, and alerted on its contents in time for the European Council dinner, just to be sure.
The intention to deliver that message before the EU dinner was not just a battle cry to underline its seriousness about not reaching an agreement if necessary, despite the strong belief of the EU that the result will harm Gran Britain more than them.
It was also because the prime minister wanted to make clear to all EU leaders directly the biggest stumbling block in the negotiation, which has frozen talks for the last week.
The biggest obstacle is the EU’s requirement that the UK comply with future rules to ensure fair competition.
If you don’t, you will face automatic punishment in the form of tariffs.
This, Johnson told MPs on Wednesday, would represent an unacceptable breach of the UK’s newfound sovereignty, and would forever bind us to as-yet-conceived, possibly deliberately harmful, EU rules on workers’ rights, the environment, subsidies and even taxes.
This, he declared, was a demand that no prime minister could subscribe to and has evolved to represent Johnson’s definition of sovereignty.
Even the most conservative MPs in parliament see this as an acceptable red line that they will support.
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So if not that, what could the prime minister sign?
One of the key problems for Britain is simply the concept that punishment could automatically stem from not following EU rules.
However, if it were not up to the EU but to an independent review body to determine whether the UK has diverged too much, would this be a sufficient concession?
Downing Street will not comment, but does not critically reject it.
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Another key question for Britain is how to figure out which rules matter and which don’t, given the sheer volume of EU legislation passed each year.
Does an independent body measure the significance of the rule change in this area? Or its impact?
Number 10 is reluctant to rely on the details of what the problem looks like.
Once upon a time, these topics might have felt like classic territory for potential negotiation and time is incredibly tight.
It is not clear that the television interview, perhaps one of the last major letters Boris Johnson has left to try to change the EU 27, will advance far enough or fast enough.
