Brexit game of inches is better than no progress

IN POLITICS, dragging opponents to the very edge of the abyss, and forcing them to look into the black depths that failure holds, became so common that they had to give it a name; they called it “brinkmanship”. Used judiciously it can focus recalcitrant hearts and minds. But it starts to lose its power when employed too often.

Yesterday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar once more warned that there cannot be a withdrawal agreement between the EU and UK without a solution to the Border, specifically avoiding a hard Border. “We’ll be standing very firm on that,” he warned.

Mr Varadkar also signalled that any Border deal would have to be hammered out by October.

The UK and European parliaments need that time to ratify arrangements before Brexit – only a year from now.

Hopes of securing consensus on the controversial “backstop” by June have already evaporated. Mr Varadkar has agreed to wait a little longer to possibly facilitate an alternative deal to be struck to negate any need for the contentious “backstop”.

It is not so long since Theresa May was declaring that no deal on Brexit was better than a bad deal.

Yesterday, it fell to Mr Varadkar to say I would “rather have the right deal by October, rather than any deal in June”. It seems that in the context of Brexit it is destined to be a game of inches. But so long as we are moving forwards instead of backwards we will take it as progress.