I am arguing that the linking of the backstop to the need to preserve peace on the island is totally overblown and cynical.
No it is not.
Nobody is saying that all out war and a return to the Troubles will occur if NI is taken out of CU/SM. The only one referening it is your good self. So stop that now!
What is being said is that the prospect of a return to, or an increase in violence increases with the installation of border controls etc.
Everyone is in agreement with this, including the DUP and including your good self.
So to avoid any such scenario Britain and DUP keep telling Ireland that there will be no checks as in fact there is actually no need for border checks or controls. This is totally cynical and contradictory to what Brexit is supposed to be about - taking control of UK borders, but under no circumstances applying checks at UK borders!
So for three years it has been asked of the British how can this work between RoI and NI. No plausible answer has ever been given. If it existed, we would have heard about it by now.
Instead, those promises of technological solutions have been reduced to promises of "under no circumstances" will the UK impose border checks.
In the event of a free trade deal (that will most certainly look identical to all arrangements in existence today) that indeed will be the case.
In the event of no free trade deal, then the backstop kicks in - ensuring an orderly continuance of affairs between the UK and EU, although from an Irish perspective, the backstop is sufficient to NI.
What confidence does anybody have in this British government negotiating a free trade deal with the EU by end of transition period?
This is calamity politics.
A bumbling procession of one Tory cock-up after another. A party trying to salvage itself and putting the future of its nation in limbo, to say the least. Manifesting itself in the worst kind of English inward looking nationalism, Farage, Robinson et all. And now spreading to the flag-waving, drum beating Orange shores of East Antrim.
It is all the EU's fault. Straight bananas, kippers, prawn cocktail crisps.
It is an embarrassment.
There is no way, in anyway shape or form, the future of Irish people on this island be left to the prehistoric vanities exuding from the Glorious Revolution.
It is 2019 - these clowns need a dose of reality. A dose of the here and now.