PM spoke to Varadkar tonight about “planned vote”
Taoiseach office: “They discussed current situation on Brexit, including the planned vote in Westminster on Tuesday.
also preparation for this week's Council, looked forward to seeing each other in Brussels on Thurs”
Taoiseach office: “They discussed current situation on Brexit, including the planned vote in Westminster on Tuesday.
also preparation for this week's Council, looked forward to seeing each other in Brussels on Thurs”
only route to get anything at all on backstop would be through Dublin...who do face paradox IF we are heading to No Deal that we will precipitate No Deal and the worst conditions to maintain current border in a few weeks by seeking a backstop to avoid that prospect in a few years
The PM might also have plausibly tried to leverage with Dublin the Opposition’s decision to oppose the backstop and back what Corbyn said was a “very good and very sensible” DUP position... it has gone down badly in the Republic...
But anything that would involve reopening the Withdrawal Agreement legal text would reopen all those last minute horse trading with rest of EU - fishing, Gib etc. If they tried to deal with it in Political Declaration, its not legally binding.
Bottom line: backstop isn’t going to get dropped by EU. Mood music is wouldn’t even drop it from legal text for Norway option.
Also whats the point of making concessions that just get rejected by MPs?
And in any case Commons does seem to have majority that seeks to stop No Deal.
Also whats the point of making concessions that just get rejected by MPs?
And in any case Commons does seem to have majority that seeks to stop No Deal.
Also this long awaited document - the 2017 “mapping exercise” that predated the Joint Report - showing the areas of cross border cooperation to be protected, was finally published. 156 areas from a Human Milk Bank, to free all Ireland travel for pensioners, to salmon stocks... 
