Several kind readers have emailed me about my attitude to the Irish Backstop (which some suppose to be a reasonable imposition by the EU).

To them I would say that, au fond (and despite wild claims about the GFA) the backstop is about trade. If the EU had not insisted on separating a trade deal from the Withdrawal Agreement (and had British negotiators not supinely acquiesced in that manoeuvre) no backstop would have been needed.  

As it is, the backstop –  which could never in any conceivable circumstance have been acceptable to a majority of the Conservative and Unionist Party – plays to the EU desire to delay or derail Brexit. A refusal to alter or modify it will bring about a constitutional crisis in the UK which could easily have been avoided. I call that ill will and malevolent mischief.

This is a tale of belligerence on the one side and incompetence on the other.