I was warning that the backstop and then the NIP were a disaster waiting to happen way back in the 'Oh, Britain' wail, and I said in Jan 2020 that BJ was wrong to sign it. My eyes were wide open, wider open to the traps in the NIP (and WA) than anyone here.
BJ clearly thought that he could blag it on order to get a deal through. It was always going to come back and bite him on the arse. I'm afraid that the alternative was a strong possibility of no deal, but maybe it was a game of brinksmanship that the EU wouldn't have savoured either. The FTA provides advantage weighted well towards EU exporters to the UK, and no deal would have lost them that comfortable advantage. They might just have blinked. As it is, we are now in a worse position than no deal.
