“No the DUP seem to all intents and purposes wanting to kick this into the long grass.”
They are not the only ones, emmie. The agreement effectively splits the United Kingdom down the Irish Sea, Traders in Great Britain will have to make customs declarations to send goods to Northern Ireland because NI will be treated as part of the EU’s customs union when the rest of the UK will not. The arrangement will last for so long as the EU thinks fit and the UK will not be able to withdraw from it unilaterally. No credible government, or for that matter no MPs, with any integrity should agree to such an arrangement. More than that, this “backstop” is said to be necessary to prevent a hard border in Ireland but neither the UK nor Ireland have any intention of constructing one under any circumstances. The EU has also said it will not do so (and has neither the resources nor the authority to do so anyway). So an unacceptable solution is being imposed to cure a problem that does not exist. Nothing will happen that remotely resembles a hard border in Ireland if the UK leaves the EU without this agreement and it is being insisted upon simply to prolong the UK’s compliance with the EU’s customs union.
Jim is quite right. I believe this situation has been deliberately contrived to thwart Brexit. Plans for a “No Deal” departure should have begun on 24th June 2016 because, quite frankly, that’s the only language the EU understands. We need “permission” to extend the A50 notice period (though not to withdraw it entirely thanks to yesterday’s ruling from the ECJ). Parliament has no stomach for “No Deal”. The EU will not modify the deal. So that leaves three options:
1.Extend the notice period (I doubt the EU will hear of it)
2.Leave with No Deal (Parliament will not hear of it)
3.Withdraw A50
If we fail to leave the EU Mrs May will go down in history as the PM who destroyed democracy in the UK. Parliament agreed to grant a referendum and the government pledged to implement the decision. The electorate voted to leave. Parliament endorsed that by voting 5-1 to invoke Article 50. A general election was held in the interim and 80% of the votes were cast for parties pledging to implement Brexit. There is absolutely no doubt that Parliament has the mandate and indeed the obligation to see through our withdrawal. If they don’t it will be a sad day because the UK will have lost the only chance it will have to strike out in a new direction free of an organisation that has done it no favours in 40 years. Instead it will be shackled to that moribund organisation until either the EU or the UK withers away.