What Is A Back Stop?

[Stargazer]

can anyone explain it in simple terms please?

[ummmm]

Suggesting someone is uneducated?

He wasn't the first one to post 'let me Google that for you'

[Prudie]

It was so snotty it needed a hankie

[Zacs-Master]

I do sometimes think that people actually forget they’re on the Internet.

[aelmpvw]

isn't the answer pots? or am i missing something?

[Old_Geezer]

A backstop is what some wish to inflict if they can avoid agreeing something better.

[Zacs-Master]

It’s not a case of it being inflicted. It’s simply inevitable and always was given that a pro EU government would never accept a deal and there has to be some kind of border between an EU and non EU country.

[Old_Geezer]

Clearly not inevitable as a) no-deal proves and b) the UK suggestions that were sensible and yet rejected also proves. It's only inevitable in the sense that the EU clearly have no interest in trying to avoid disturbing what peace there is in Ireland. They like to make out that Europe wouldn't know the issues between the UK and RoI so can ask us to keep finding further solutions for them to reject out of hand. Something Boris seems keen to do for the next month.

[Old_Geezer]

"some kind of border between an EU and non EU country."
Aye; an open border where any desired checks are performed well away from the border.

[Peter Pedant]

great answer Jim

// If the backstop is invoked, it would mean goods coming into Northern Ireland from elsewhere in the UK would need to be checked to see if they meet EU standards. //

so there is never a return to the border between north and south
BUT
EU negotiators dont know nor care about the 1922 treaty of separation ( or Freedom ! ) and the civil war 1970-2000 and the Good Friday

and so if the border is clear between North and the Republic then ....
the principle of the european single market means that Europe insiste there is a border between Northern Ireland and England

and the unionists say this can never be
(internal borders - common in the C19 to the point of "so what" in France and Austria Hungary) Octrois and all that

was there ever a border between England and scotland
or was it that there was nothing worth importing from the North Haw haw haw ?

[Peter Pedant]

// Aye; an open border where any desired checks are performed well away from the border.//

aye indeed ye ken: you'll have had your tea?
Loads from Shanghai are cleared there for customs and not the Port of London so it can and is being done

[Peter Pedant]

// Pedantic or just a feeling of superiority.//
no no surely not surely not

to take a page out of Pres Trumps book:
everyone knows I do not have a pedantic bone in ma bardy !

please if a reader is going to guffaw - please do it in a hankie

[ichkeria]

The backstop keeps the UK in the EU customs union and parts of the single market, tho I don’t understand exactly which bit(s)
It only comes into gorge if by the end of the transition period in 2021, during which the EU and UK are supposed to be negotiating a trade deal, no solution has been found to checking customs and trading standards of goods entering the EU from OUTSIDE (actually)
Originally it was going to involve a customs border between Ireland and GB, but the government's confidence and supply partners the DUP kicked up a fuss.

[Jackdaw33]

I too am confused by the term. I know what it signifies in the Brexit context but what an odd choice of phrase. I have never heard it used in paraallel situations; it sounds to me more like a defensive position on a sports field.