‘Brexit with an open border’ is a fantasy. Still Theresa May chases it | Simon Jenkins

Instead of returning to the Irish border, the prime minister should be opening up the debate beyond a minority of hardline Tories

Theresa May’s Irish backstop is Donald Trump’s wall. It is the howl of power thwarted by the implacable opposition of a democratic assembly. The prime minister today again sets her face against MPs who are now desperately searching for a parliamentary consensus on how to leave the EU.

She will plead with her Tory right wing – which is what it is – to support a suppos...