A contrarian view of the "backstop"

When an intelligent commentator produces an opinion which is the exact opposite of what nearly everyone else things, it's usually worth reading if only for entertainment value. And usually for more than that. Human minds do have something of a herd instinct and it takes guts to go against the consensus - which is the very reason people who do so should usually be listened to even though they may not convince you.

There is a very good conrarian piece on the Spectator site this week called

"Five reasons brexiteers should learn to love the backstop,"

by James Kirkup, which makes some very important points about how the "backstop" clauses in the proposed EU Withdrawal agreement is not quite as much of a capitulation to the EU as it has been almost universally painted as being.
For example, the backstop breaks the EU's "fundamental rules" against cherry picking in the UK's favour - we're in the customs union without paying into the EU budget, and it is a victory for the UK on fishing, getting Britain out of the Common Fisheries policy and able to exclude Eu fishermen from UK waters.

This needs to be borne in mind when you hear people suggest that EU politicians such as Emmanual Macron might seek to keep us in the backstop permanently - because he's going to get some very angry comments from French fishermen if he does.

You can read the article in full here.

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