Sir, – At last the penny has dropped! For three years Newton Emerson has been in denial along with most of the unionist community in believing that Brexit was a fait accompli and it would be the nationalists who would have to come to terms with it in some shape or form ("Two U-turns will leave DUP in a spin", Opinion & Analysis, September 12th).
In common with most unionists and all Brexiteers, he couldn’t imagine an EU that would stand united, resolute, and in total solidarity with one of its smaller members. Somehow the EU was going to have to bend to the will of the DUP, as Theresa May had done.
But the EU and the Irish Government have been clear: there will be no deal without a backstop, and it is up to the UK to decide whether this is on an all-UK basis, or on an all-Ireland basis, and that decision has now been made.
Boris Johnson will dress it up as some sort of “practical arrangements” to overcome the impracticalities of placing customs infrastructure on hundreds of roads across the 500km border, but the effect will be the same.
Welcome to the real world. – Yours, etc,
FRANK SCHNITTGER,
Blessington,
Co Wicklow.