Can someone explain the current backstop position

[Bearbehind]

Because I'm confused!

I thought that TM originally proposed a backstop of NI remaining in CU/SM, the the DUP immediately vetoed that so we reverted to saying the whole of the UK would remain aligned with SM /CU wrt issues affecting the border.

Barnier said in his speech they never wanted to create a border in the North Sea either.

So WTF is TM on about now saying the EU need to 'evolve' on the backstop?

This has been agreed already.

What am I missing here?

David Milliband could. Armed guards and all.

(Had Scotland voted Yes in 2014, that was one of the promises.)

The problem is when some parts of the press and some politicians refer to the backstop as being "a distraction". This leads people to believe it is a non issue.
I've just had an argument with my dad over this very point.

Apile there is a border between NI and Ireland and there are rules about what you are allowed to take across this border and, in some cases, paperwork must be completed in advance and taxes paid.

Itsallgoing I am not suggesting no infrastructure border between UK and EU or even UK and Ireland - just concentrating on the volume of trade flows, these would be a the ports, not the land border -where very little UK/EU trade goes.

Katy Hayward has a good document on the NI/IRL border. It was the single market in 1993 which got rid of infrastructure.

www.qub.ac.uk/brexit/Brexitfilestore/Filetoupload,737794,en.pdf

Furthermore, the creation of the Single Market on 1 January 1993 erased many obstacles to cross-border trade and economic development, and customs posts on the border were immediately made redundant. Added to this, the EU helped create, support and fund networks and programmes across and through the border region, helping to ameliorate some of the negative legacy of the border whilst facilitating closer integration of economies on either side.

Interestingly, there were passport checks between the whole island of Ireland and GB at one point.

A lot of trade from NI to GB takes the route through Ireland and over from Dublin to Wales.

Apile there is a border between NI and Ireland...

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

A lot of trade from NI to GB takes the route through Ireland and over from Dublin to Wales.

Absolutely, drive along the A55 to Holyhead/Caergybi late at night and it will be heaving with Irish lorries going for the night boat - which serves Dun Laoghaire. I don't know how many of those will carry on to N Ireland but the trade is by no means negligible.

...which in turn makes me wonder how a border between the Welsh ports and Irish ones can be avoided, in the same way that there will need to be a border between Dover/Calais and other UK/EU ports.

Shipping companies are starting to put on more routes directly to and from continental Europe Peregrina. I'm not sure if current plans will be enough to avoid considerable delays.

Peregrina, I seem to remember Leanne Wood piping up about that at some point. I don't know where it led to, if anywhere.

But the Tories have ruled out a border in the Irish Sea - obviously forgetting that Welsh ports directly link to Irish ones, and some trade will only be going to Ireland.

They've forgotten a lot about the Irish issue, haven't they, the idiots?

The phrase 'no border in the Irish Sea' refers to trade between NI and UK, not trade between Ireland and the UK.
This is the same as we currently have a customs border in the Channel for trade from outside the EU and not one for trade inside the EU.

They don't give a feck about the Irish problem, only about 2 million live there. And they don't vote Tory.

There was a Dublin-Belfast economic corridor proposed at one stage. This is from the advent of the single market. Changed a lot, that single market.
www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-42444268

This is an interesting document on the crossborder area. This area so badly needs development.
www.transfrontier.eu/regions/ireland-northern-ireland/

One could ponder over these documents. They are leaked documents from UK, NI and probably internal EU parliament documents. from working groups.

guengl-brexit.eu/index.php/leaked-documents/

guengl-brexit.eu/index.php/ireland/

What an absolute mess we're in.

How does it work if May just goes ahead and defies Rees Mogg and his merry band, daring them to vote against her?

Cailleach, I had a quick look at the border controls one. What a mess.

I am aware that they were talking about RoI/NI, but really with this bunch of total incompetents in Government (and an almost equally incompetent 'Opposition'), it really needs to be spelt out in words of one syllable for them.

I wonder how they will police the arrangements - trucks with NI plates in one queue, RoI in another? Once you of necessity have to have a border at Holyhead and Fishguard, what is to stop some bright spark suggesting that it applies to NI?

It is really a time of sending in clodhoppers where angels fear to thread. Eff the consequences for others. And there is an air of malevolence. If they won't give the UK what the UK wants, then retribution. I think they thought the EU would fall apart earlier. And they'd be doing deals with each country. Divide and conquer deals. Instead, Barnier. I read somewhere they are still briefing against little old Ireland.

As for the MP's vote to try to stay in the European Medicines Agency. Like Liechtenstein and Norway. They are EEA (and EFTA) members.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is the Department of Health executive agency responsible for licencing and regulating medicines and medical devices in the UK. According to the Financial Times, 4 August 2016, the EMA outsources up to a third of its work to the MHRA and this work is responsible for a third of the MHRA’s income. A report in the British Medical Journal in May 2016 stated that this work by the MHRA also makes the UK an attractive location to carry out clinical trials.

From link below. Click on the link at the bottom to download the full report. So we see a couple of things there. The regulator in the country where the agency is based is built up. It contributes a third of the MHRA's income. This also makes them an attractive location for clinical trials. You don't look at membership contribution as a household budget outgoing.

researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7957#fullreport