![](https://www.cer.eu/sites/default/files/styles/spotlight/public/may_14.11.18_no10_sl_4.jpg?itok=FDhR3IRe)
The great Brexit breakdown
The backstop “means all kinds of things to different people,” says Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, a London-based think tank. “The right hates it because it leaves open the possibility of being locked in a customs union. The left hates it because it leaves Britain outside the EU but subject to the rules of the EU and without a voice or a vote.”