Sir, – It is important that what is at stake in the British demand to remove or time-limit the Northern Ireland backstop previously agreed between the British government and the EU be clearly and widely understood, and why a fuzzy compromise carries grave dangers.
It is not just a question of the peace painfully achieved on this island, but also of this State’s continuing position as a full member of the EU, the two being pitted against each other.
As the current issue of the Economist observes, Mrs May is seeking three incompatible things, an independent trade policy, an invisible Irish border, and no border down the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and it says she should get short shrift when she goes to Brussels.
Her former adviser Nick Timothy has pointed out that these objectives could be achieved, if Ireland leaves the customs union and joins one with the UK.
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So, dropping the backstop, unless and until a trade agreement or proven and verifiable technology make it redundant, means either the political devastation for peace caused by a hard border, with Ireland having the responsibility to protect the integrity of the Single Market, or the economic devastation of Ireland being cut out of the Single Market, if it won’t or is unable to do it.
The only way forward, if not the November agreement, is a softening of red lines.
It is still unlikely that Westminster or a responsible British government would hazard a crash-out from the European Union, but they should be given no opportunity to indulge in wishful thinking about the firmness of the EU stance, which incorporates the Irish position. – Yours, etc,
MARTIN MANSERGH,
Tipperary.