Tbh our international standing and trust is probably the least of our worries at present although I do take your point with regard to going back on our word. I also think / hope we'll get a deal and suspect there will be much posturing as well as a little give and take to allow both the EU and Boris to come out alive and claiming either victory or a well fought stalemate. That in itself should guarantee that the worst excess of hard / no deal brexit is avoided although its obviously always a risk.
Of course - nobody wants the UK to be in a position where it finds it necessary to break international law - but a lot of the 'faux outrage' expressed on here is clearly just the guff of those wishing to be offended and indignant. Some of the 'usual suspects' are just tripping over themselves to demonstrate their double-standards - oh what a difference a year makes;-)
For me the important point is to realise where we are and how we got here.....
Yes - the Remainers disingenuously make a lot of the fact that Johnson campaigned on let's get Brexit done and signed off on the WA - but that is not as black and white as the Remainers seek to make it out to be with their selectivity in how they remember things
The WA - even minus the utterly poisonous unfettered backstop - was a product of Remainer acquiescence to EU instruction - it was the evidence of May/Robbin's incompetence
When Johnson took office - he was hamstrung by the EU sycophancy that dominated Westminster until eventually the sycophants placed their own arrogance as a priority and accepted the opportunity of a GE - whilst utterly failing to understand the views of the electorate
It is easy to see why Cummings has become so important to Johnson - it will have been Cummings that decided on the election mantra of 'Get Brexit done' - and (yet again) he was successful. But he and all committed Brexiteers knew that the WA was a poison chalice that had to be dealt with.
Which is why - from a negotiating POV - I am absolutely delighted to see the way Frost/Cummings/Johnson have handled the interaction with the EU during 2020 - unsavoury and ruthless it might be - but it has also been very effective in breaking the EU stranglehold that May/Robbins and the Remainers had placed the UK in.
Yes - they are all sounding butthurt now - but it seems that the UK government is being led by people with the required steel and callousness to do what is necessary to ensure that the UK does become a genuinely independent state and is able to invest however it wants to support its levelling up agenda
After years of a vacillating May - this is refreshing and I can understand why some of the Remainers on here - along with Coveney and Barnier - are butthurt and crying 'no fair'