For once, I think Jean Claude-Juncker might have a point. “Nebulous” was a pretty good description of Theresa May’s mission to Brussels. What, exactly, was she expecting from EU leaders that was also going to please her own backbenchers? She must have known the EU would stonewall her over the backstop. She seemed merely to be asking for ‘reassurances’ rather than a legal guarantee that Britain could not be trapped in the backstop – in spite of knowing full well that reassurances are not going to be enough to win over her Commons critics. To adapt Winston Churchill, May’s strategy has become a nebula trapped inside a smog, hidden within a miasma.
Yet there is such as easy way out of the mess. Why can she not go to Brussels, explain that the backstop will never pass the Commons and propose a simple, alternative solution: that Article 50 is extended, say six months at a time, so that Britain remains a full member of the EU until a trade deal between Britain and the EU has been ratified? That would do away with the need for a backstop because it would mean the Irish border remaining as it is until – hopefully – a zero tariff trade deal came into effect.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in