> What about it? This was a British government proposal in the first place. I know the UK wanted to prevent a harder border, but I'm not sure who was specifica

> What about it? This was a British government proposal in the first place. I know the UK wanted to prevent a harder border, but I'm not sure who was specifically responsible for the final wording [1]. In my opinion one of the greatest issues was: > In the absence of agreed solutions, the United Kingdom will maintain full alignment with those rules of the Internal Market and the Customs Union [..] Essentially meaning that unless the UK is able to come to terms that the EU agree on, the UK could be forced to implement all laws as dictated by the EU. (Remember, the purpose of the EU was for trade, so technically that means all laws, not just those related to trade.) The only way out of this is potentially a hard border, something they really don't want either. All the EU has to do is to reject all deals offered by the UK and the UK has to remain a silent paying member state indefinitely. There is of course the point that no parliament can bind a future parliament to any agreement, but this has consequences for market stability too. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_backstop#Initial_Backstop_proposal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_backstop#Initial_Backsto...