IMAGINE this slim 5ft-tall guy who puffs out his chest, walks up to a large rugby player type and starts talking to him like he better listen or else!

Then you see this slight bloke has ten of his own giant mates backing him up.

2 Financial expert and commentator Karl Deeter gives his view on Brexit talks as the deadline draws closer Credit: Collins Photo Agency

2 Deeter believes the threat to Ireland comes from the EU as they 'will demand a border' Credit: PA:Press Association

The small fellow is Ireland telling the UK they won't be getting anything other than the Theresa May negotiated deal — and doing so with the backing of the big lads, the EU, behind us, while being too juiced up on our own self-importance to realise the tough talking stance is laughable.

The problem is that we have to make enemies and friends simultaneously with the UK and EU.

The EU needs to know we still see Brexit as bad and yet we need them to concede on the backstop.

The UK needs to see us as being more aligned with them, which, culturally, we are, while also being a little Eurosceptical enough to push back on the EU's stance.

Only one nation on Earth could pull off a juggling-act like that — and fortunately we live in it.

The Irish charm, wit and intelligence can make even the most intractable situation possible.

Leo Varadkar has chosen not to do this. Charm was never his strong point, integrity is.

LEO'S STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS IS ONE AND THE SAME

He invited Boris Johnson to meet next month with the headline that there was 'no room for any negotiation on the backstop'.

He may as well greet him when the time comes with a cry of 'no surrender!'.

Of course, 'no negotiation' isn't true, when a deal really matters everything is up for consideration.

What it demonstrates is Varadkar's strength and weakness being one and the same. Sometimes straight-talking doesn't get deals done, it creates hostility where friendship should bloom.

Opposition to the backstop put Johnson in power, he's hardly going to renounce it because Leo threw down the gauntlet?

It's as ridiculous as Boris telling Leo he has to repeal marriage equality.

Politicians might be slithery but when they have a central tenet they rarely forsake it.

THIS IS A MISTAKE

Simon Coveney, who is out front as Foreign Affairs Minister, is perhaps more charming and just as smart but he hasn't brought anybody in the UK over to his side, bar opposition politicians.

That's like having all the best bagpipe players on your football team.

Great if you want to make music that sounds like donkey strangulation, not so great if you want to win a league game.

This is a mistake.

We are on the cusp of a serious crisis in Europe. If Britain suffers there is contagion risk.

At the same time, Europe isn't in good shape. Germany and Italy, two of the EU's largest economies, were both in recession in the second half of last year.

The Italian government is falling apart, Spain doesn't even have a government and hasn't for some time — but they are still a distant second to Northern Ireland, which is front and centre in this crisis.

The EU, who, just like in the banking crisis, are ever keen to remind us how they have our back, will demand a border even though London has said it won't put one up or police it.

That's the kind of help that will turn dissidents in the North into active service members.

In this respect, that threat actually comes from the EU and not the UK.

BORDER ISSUES

It isn’t easy to see the other side of an argument, but how could the North effectively stay in the EU, which the backstop effectively stipulates, when it would have no representation in Brussels?

The Good Friday deal allows for the possibility of a united Ireland if enough people want it, but while the North remains pro-EU, having voted against Brexit, it doesn't want unification and the backstop muddies those waters.

The border is still a very real possibility and, from what I can discern, there is no law against a border check.

Nothing is mentioned in the Good Friday Agreement, the word 'tax' doesn't even appear once in there because each side was able to keep their own powers.

One such power arises from the practice of customs and excise, which is often border based.

The backstop means you would have effective border checks between the North and the UK's mainland — but that's all one jurisdiction and would be like Ireland agreeing to checks between Dublin and Cork.

An indefinite backstop obviously ticks all the Irish boxes.

Of course, everybody here is cheerleading for it, but to do so without being able to even comprehend why Brexiteers might balk at the idea exposes the massive blind spot that exists in Irish thinking.

UNPREPARED FOR HARD BREXIT

We are utterly unable to conceive of why a hard Brexit may have to occur and for that reason we'll be unprepared when it does.

To even mention our shortfall of negotiating skills or to say that a hard exit might be the right choice is taboo, to the extent that you will be scapegoated from on high.

Unionists see the backstop as effective unification minus the formalities because it has no end.

Why would the Irish Government negotiate the outcome of a battle it had already won, if we assume a one-nation island is within its scope of objectives.

We should have given in on the timescale and set a deadline. This key error in negotiation rests fully with Fine Gael and one day we will rue our short-sightedness at having passed it up.

It would have avoided much of the crisis and prevented Johnson's rise to power.

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Chances are the UK will muddle its way through while analysts jump up and down and Remainers pull their hair out.

The truth is nobody wants Armageddon and no side is promising that even though both claim the other side will invariably deliver it.

The Brits have 800 years of self-interest to fall back on, we have almost no skills in this area. If it all goes awry remember — almost nobody questioned the consensus.