Return_of_the_STAR wrote:Surely we can remove the backstop by having a longer transition period with it written that we enter the transition period for say up to three years with the intention of agreeing a free trade deal before that time is up. If a deal is not agreed then both sides have the option of either terminating or extending the transition period. That must be the best compromise between no deal and the backstop option.
The backstop is there to ensure the Good Friday Agreement is maintained. The EU’s position is that the backstop has to be there until a solution to the border (that satisfies the GFA) is found.
Leavers are in a tough position because they don’t want the backstop because they know there is no real solution to the border issue (if we keep May’s red lines on immigration). But they have simultaneously argued that the border is easy and that there is no issue there.
They are either idiots, liars or both.
See also the insistence that we “control our borders!” while at the same time claiming that Britain doesn’t want a border on our only land border.