a deal and they could you know i was possibly encouraged by our conversations last night in berlin with on mutual friends johnson s key goal is to convince the e.u. to scrap the so-called backstop it s the fallback policy that would prevent a hard border between the republic of ireland and northern ireland following brags that. a day earlier johnson was in berlin where chancellor angela merkel told him the backstop wouldn t be necessary if britain could propose an alternative solution quickly. i admire that that can do spirit that she seems to have that i think she s right i think that the technical solutions are readily available you can have trusted traders schemes you can have electronic clearing of the goods moving across the border. to meetings main revelation a pledge that britain won t install controls on its border with ireland. but under no circumstances will the u.k.