What is the Northern Ireland backstop exactly?
What are it’s functions, why are people so upset about it and how did Brexit reach this stage of fubarness?
31-35, M
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SW-User
It's meant to prevent the introduction of border controls between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. No-one really wants these as they're a key part of the peace process. The DUP interpretation of the backstop measures is that they create a different set of laws in Northern Ireland to the rest of Great Britain and therefore weaken the union they want to preserve. In reality, Northern Ireland already has a separate legal system and differs to rest of UK in several areas.