Cannot checkout a Launchpad hosted project

I have tried 2 different methods to create a Launchpad hosted project branch (specifically lp:python). They are the following:

On Launchpad:
1) Go to the Python project page and click the "Register Branch" link
2) Select "hosted" for project location, set the branch name to <branch_name> and fill in the rest of the data required
3) Follow the steps for remote branching below

Remotely:
1) Execute "bzr get/branch lp:python" (the get or branch code can be used; both will cause the specified problem).
2) Execute "cd python"
3) Execute "bzr push bzr+ssh://<uid>@bazaar.launchpad.com/~<uid>/python/<branch_name>"
4) Wait wait wait
5) Execute "cd .."
6) Execute "bzr checkout bzr+ssh://<uid>@bazaar.launchpad.com/~<uid>/python/<branch_name>"

In both cases, when you execute the checkout, you will get a cryptic message:

bzr: ERROR: Repository KnitPackRepository('file:///<path>/<branch_name>/.bzr/repository/') is not compatible with repository RemoteRepository(bzr+ssh://<uid>@bazaar.launchpad.net/%7E<uid>/<project_name>/<branch_name>/.bzr/)

It is therefor impossible to checkout a project from Launchpad created as a hosted project which therefore defeats the point of Launchpad hosting projects because the projects it hosts are broken.