Posted: Sep 20, 2019 12:37 am
GrahamH wrote:Are they all complete imbeciles? Stephen Barclay seems clueless about what a "backstop" is:The EU has set Britain a test it "cannot meet" with its demands to see a replacement for the Irish backstop, the Brexit Secretary has said.
Stephen Barclay said the UK should be given another year to find a new policy for the Northern Ireland border.
"We are told the UK must provide legally operative text by the 31st October," the cabinet minister said in a speech in Madrid on Thursday.
"Yet the alternative to the backstop is not necessary until the end of the Implementation Period in December 2020.
"And this will be shaped by the future relationship – which is still to be determined.
"In short why risk crystallising an undesirable result this November, when both sides can work together – until December 2020.
"In summary, the EU risks continuing to insist on a test that the UK cannot meet and that the UK Parliament has rejected three times."
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/brexit/u ... spartanntp
Nothing is "crystallised" this November. The backstop is insurance that gives everyone until December 2020 to solve the border problem.
Incredible, isn't it? Barclay is outraged by the backstop, and instead wants something that isn't the backstop, but shares all of its characteristics (ie, is the backstop).
So, the EU should offer the UK a new deal. Call it the "Interim Post-Brexit Border Arrangement" under which the UK will have as much extra time as it needs to sort out the border issue, and can start implementing third party trade deals and regulatory deharmonisation as soon as the new border arrangements are agreed and implemented. Let Johnson have a big chest-beating, dick-waving presser about how he's got the EU to drop the backstop. Move on.