No-deal Leo guilty of a Brexit gamble

Sir — Brexit and the imminent prospect of a hard border on this island is far too serious an issue for the games of brinkmanship we have seen on both sides of the Irish Sea.

The first rule of any negotiation must be a willingness to sacrifice a little to gain a lot. Leo Varadkar’s style of negotiation represents an unwillingness to do a deal — and instead gamble on the dubious assumption that Britain will cave in on the backstop even when it is obvious there is no majority in the House of Commons to support the backstop in its current form.

As Brexit day looms, the EU and Britain need to leave behind their entrenched positions to reach some kind of compromise. The most likely fudge would be a time-limited backstop of something like three years to allow companies in Northern and southern Ireland time to re-orientate their business away from cross-border trade. It would also allow time to come up with a better solution, such as the use of technology or some form of customs union arrangement.

The Brexit mess has underlined just how much these islands lack political heavyweights and deal makers of the nature of Hume, Trimble, Reynolds, Bruton, Major and, for all their faults, Ahern and Blair. While they may not have agreed with Brexit, they at least would have delivered a deal which avoids a hard border. Emmet Healy, An Spideal, Co Galway