Quote Originally Posted by Burney View Post
m, I love you dearly and enjoy our chats. You’re a very bright chap generally, but sometimes I do wonder about the way you get ideas stuck in your head.
The WHOLE POINT of the backstop is to keep us trapped in it unless we accept a permanent customs union (ie de facto EU membership).
Someone today likened it to getting into a car with someone who has a gun in the glovebox. You ask them to get rid of the gun, they say ‘Don’t worry about the gun - I’ll never use it’
‘So why do you need the gun?’
‘Never mind the gun. Let’s just get where we’re going’
‘Where are we going?’
‘Wherever I say’
‘Can I get out, please?’
‘No. I have a gun’
Actually, I think the risk of a permanent custom union doesn't come from the EU, it comes from a Labour government taking over the Future Relationship negotiations. To that extent, I take your point.

But that could happen even if we were granted the legal right to unilaterally exit the backstop. And so if the DUP were truly concerned about a permanent customs union, they would surely oppose Brexit in its totality on the grounds that a mere change of government could precipitate one.