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Politics Discussion - Brexit - View Post

MrWayne said:

As far as I understand it the dispute about May's deal lies within how long the backstop scenario would last. The UK wants that the backstop has a fix time limit, the EU however says the backstop will be as long in place as long no acceptable solution, for both parties, for the Irish border is reached.
The reason why the EU has this demand is simple, Ireland. the irish government has a veto, every possible deal made between the UK and the EU has to be accepted by the irish government.
So what are the Irish so concerned about? In case the Backstop would end without a new deal in place, Ireland would have two options
a) a hard border between Ireland and the UK wich would be a direct violation of the good friday agreement. The don't want that.
Or b) no hard border between the UK and Ireland wich would lead to massive smuggling wich would than force the other EU members to control every good that comes from Ireland, this would factually put Ireland out of the single market. The Irish don't want that either because the single market is the biggest benefit of being a EU member.

So with what realistic solution other than May's deal could the UK come up to please the Irish?

An Irish reunification vote... but that's very understandable why the UK doesn't want to hold one, as they would loose NI then - and could give the Scottish ideas. But it would solve the issue at hand, as there would be no need for a backstop anymore.