A Hallowe'en Brexit

[Apoiads]

You couldn't make this shit up.

Bluntness you are wrong. The political declaration is simply a declaration. It is merely a wish list, rather than an international treaty.
Have a look at the withdrawal agreement or the explanatory notes to it, the backstop is definitely part of the WA!

£1.5 billion Wasted on No deal preparations

I'm not wrong.🤣

The political declaration is what speaks to the future relationship. Because of it, a back stop is required in the withdrawal agreement.

If the political declaration changes ie to a customs union, a back stop is no longer required and becomes moot.

The withdrawal agreement is no more than a short term transition agreement, the political declaration is the agreement for when we have exited.

A back stop is required in the withdrawal agreement, the transition agreement, purely because of the political declaration, the future relationship. If the future relationship post exit, the political statement, changes to something like a customs union, then the back Stop is no longer required and becomes irrelevant in the WA.

It is in there, because a back stop would need to be in place by the time we exit, if we maintain the political declaration, because post exit we would trade on different terms. If we do not trade on different terms, then no back Stop is required to be put in place before we exit.

The backstop is needed in the WA as it's legally binding. The PD is not, and can be amended / torn up / disregarded. So, whatever is in the PD, whether it be CU or CU plus SM can be ignored.

Which is why the backstop is needed in the legally binding part of the agreement.

So you are wrong, Bluntness. The backstop prevents an ERG nutter from doing what the hell they like and throwing the island of Ireland under a bus in the meantime.

Also, we don't trade on different terms immediately post-exit with a deal, only no deal. With a deal we have a transition period where things carry on as they are.

Bluntness, I thought the same as you - if eg we went back to the EU and said we're changing our red lines and now want an EEA arrangement the WA would be reopened. But the others are right. The WA will not be changed, but the PD would be, to say that we are planning to remain in the EEA.