| NightlyPoe said: That's simply incorrect. The backstop doesn't come into effect until 2021 at the earliest in the case of future negotiations faltering. Strip it out of May's deal and nothing changes in the immediate future while the two sides continue negotiating the broader agreement during the transition period. There's no "automatic" hard border. Neither side even wants a hard border. And all Britain is asking for is an expiration date on the backstop so they won't be permanently entangled. In the end, that's a bare minimum for a country to demand in any negotiations. It's basic sovereignty. |
Gotta realize when striking a withdrawal agreement with the EU it needs unanimous approval among the other 27 members and specifically, Ireland will veto anything else other than a backstop or a customs union ...
Leo Varadkar's party, Fine Gael are not interested in losing the next election by risking to ruin the Good Friday Agreement. The Taoiseach is also not keen on putting a border between Ireland and the EU either. The EU does not like the idea of seeing contraband reach their single market through a potential backdoor in Ireland where goods can be smuggled from the Irish border ...
The backstop is an absolute necessity according to both Ireland and the EU if their not willing to accept borders between each other or the smuggling of illegal goods. The UK lowering their trade barriers relative to the EU will threaten local businesses in the mainland ... (it's the ugly truth that the EU needs more protectionism otherwise it'd get massively undercut by competitors like China or the US)
If the UK is not interested in the proposed relationship or a closer relationship then the only solution is to no deal ... (I think the UK should take this path and takes advantage of it to the maximum degree as much as possible)
The UK needs a revamp in some industries to make it more productive. They should accept chlorinated chicken, hormone treated beef, and GM foods in agriculture to get more food. The UK could also do without GDPR since it practically makes deep learning illegal and Europe's currently best start up tech hub culture is located in London which could play nicely to their advantage. Instead of focusing so much on financial services they should invest a lot on machine learning so that they can take full advantage of automation in a digital economy and the EU will never be able to take complete advantage of automation since it has far reaching restrictions on how data is handled ...
