Brent4Europe stalwarts Karin and Graham protested outside Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin yesterday ahead of the G7 summit this coming weekend.

The reception they gave Johnson can be heard in this report from Channel 4 News.

Ahead of the meeting, Johnson wrote to European Council President Donald Tusk spelling out the UK’s demands for a Brexit deal, saying:

The UK and the EU have already agreed that “alternative arrangements” can be part of the solution. Accordingly:

– I propose that the backstop should be replaced with a commitment to put in place such arrangements as far as possible before the end of the transition period, as part of the future relationship.

With only 70 days until the UK is currently scheduled to leave the EU, Merkel challenged Boris Johnson to come up with a solution to avoid a no-deal Brexit in the next 30 days in a press conference after her first face-to-face meeting with her UK counterpart.

Johnson accepted the “onus” was on the UK, but said he believed there was “ample scope” for a new deal to be reached.

However, Johnson didn’t spell out what ‘alternative arrangements’ he was thinking of — and no one has yet been able to specify any concrete ideas that would actually work in practice.

Coming up with them in the next 30 days will be a tall order for Johnson.