Absolutely. I think we're on the same page that the process of joining is going to have the UK complain and whine at every step. My point was rather that saying EU would make demands so steep could be taken as EU wanting make an example out of UK. That's not really what we should want because we know the UK is going to complain and treating them harsher than any other applicant would somewhat legitimize their grievances. I think a better wording for "EU would make demands so steep, crawling on..." would be "UK will think the demands are so steep, crawling on glass..." because then instead of seeming like EU is being unfair it's going to seem like UK simply doesn't want to play ball (which is how we have ended up in this situation in the first place).