Has the European Union fatally undermined its own rationale for the Irish backstop this week?

Real questions over the controversial backstop have been raised over the past 48 hours as the pressure of a looming no-deal Brexit forces some of its contradictions and inconvenient truths into the open.

Months of controversy in the House of Commons have left the withdrawal agreement’s protocol to avoid a hard border in Ireland unscathed. It has stayed rock solid. Now just a few days of mixed messages and disarray on the European Union side have raised doubts over whether the backstop is needed at all.

It all came to a head on Tuesday when Paddy Smyth, Europe editor for The Irish Times, pressed the European Commission on what