evidence: In the present context of hard Brexit, this can only lead in one of two directions. The EU can back off and indeed agree to kick the can down the road. It can pretend to time-limit the Irish backstop and see what happens. If that might reactivate Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement, permit Brexit in October and let tempers cool for a negotiation of a new trade deal in the transition, it might be worth it. But in reality it would just postpone the agony, and the EU clearly has no intention of doing that, however much Johnson puffs and blusters. Or Johnson could defy the DUP and agree to a separate, soft-Brexit status for Northern Ireland in relation to the south. This would accept some border arrangement down the Irish Sea, with a de facto border at sea ports. It would eliminate any need for the backstop. Brexit could proceed as Johnson promised on 31 October. [...] This must be the moment for Johnson to call the DUP’s bluff. If Britain really is to crash out of the EU in two months, there will have to be border controls somewhere round the shores of the Irish Sea. The EU cannot let Ireland become open country for smuggling. Nor can Britain accept a flood of incoming EU food when its own exports are subject to EU tariffs.