I want to throw away my first impressions from yesterday of the so-called “Windsor Accords,” the replacement of the Northern Irish Protocol between the EU and the United Kingdom as part of Brexit.

I got caught up in all the jargon coming from the United Kingdom’s government on the agreement and all the advertised cutting of red tape. But, the actual legal text published by the EU is entirely different. 

There are “meaningful changes” to the Northern Irish Protocol — simplifications in some customs — but the basics remain in place. It seems to leave the onus on the United Kingdom to stay aligned with the EU regulations “on the way forward” if it wants to continue to have even slightly less cumbersome movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Rishi Sunak’s government (and I suspect, behind the scenes, the U.S. government) is heavily lobbying Northern Irish unionists to accept.

I’m not sure they can. On second impression, the Windsor Accords give the political players in the United Kingdom a stark choice: “Brexit in Name Only” or “Union in Name Only.”