I always try to catch whatever Robert Peston has to say and I found this item (HERE) particularly intriguing. Peston is asking what May's biggest mistake has been on Brexit. He focuses on the backstop but let's be honest the list is long and full of serious, fundamental and unforgivable errors. She has had access to and rejected the best advice that money could buy so Peston is right to conclude she has only herself to blame.
In his piece he is trying to see how the UK might be able to get out of the backstop and thus help the PM convince Brexiteers it will not be permanent. This is what he says:
"If we knew what kind of commercial and security relationship we would ultimately have with the EU, the backstop would not be the problem it is: there would be widespread confidence on both sides of the channel that if the backstop were used at all, it would be of desperately short duration, for the simple reason that there would be a high degree of certainty about post-Brexit negotiations to put in place alternative trading arrangements that would make the backstop wholly redundant".
This is May's position, that before the end of 2020 we will have agreed a deal which will make the backstop redundant and unnecessary. The two year period is, in the opinion of most trade experts, far too short and this is one of the Brexiteers' worries.
But listen to this quite amazing statement from Peston:
But listen to this quite amazing statement from Peston:
"That is why it is NOT barking mad to suggest that the backstop could stay in force till after we're all pushing up the daisies".
On this side of The Channel there are men like Fox, Lilley and others who believe a beneficial trade deal can be agreed with the EU very easily and very quickly. On the other side there are doubts that and agreement can ever be reached.
This is the chasm that has to be bridged. Even if the Withdrawal Agreement is agreed we will simply enter another round of negotiations with the same divisions and disagreements as we have now. The political declaration is vague enough to embrace anything from a Canada style FTA to a Norway EEA arrangement. But without a consensus in this country we will still be at risk of leaving without a deal at all.
This is the chasm that has to be bridged. Even if the Withdrawal Agreement is agreed we will simply enter another round of negotiations with the same divisions and disagreements as we have now. The political declaration is vague enough to embrace anything from a Canada style FTA to a Norway EEA arrangement. But without a consensus in this country we will still be at risk of leaving without a deal at all.
