MANCHESTER (WASHINGTON POST) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday (Oct 2) offered a glimpse of his proposal for a Brexit deal, which was being cast as a take-it-or-leave-it offer to European leaders.

Bouncing up to the stage at his Conservative Party's annual conference in Manchester, Johnson offered new details on how Britain would like to "get Brexit done" - in Johnson's favourite catchphrase.

His arrival in the hall was accompanied by The Who's 1971 anthem Baba O'Riely. Johnson said his government would table "constructive and reasonable" proposals that offer a "compromise for both sides."

He said that "under no circumstances" would there be "checks at or near the border in Northern Ireland."

Reading from his notes, perhaps to get the tricky language delivered as he wrote it, Johnson said the Northern Ireland assembly would get a say on how the Irish border is managed and that Britain would act to "protect the existing regulatory arrangements for farmers and other businesses on both sides of the border."

In his speech, Johnson did not spell out what he meant by that.

Later in the day, the British leader is expected to submit written proposals to European Union headquarters in Brussels. British news media reported that government sources described the offer on Wednesday as "take it or leave it."

Johnson has repeatedly said that any deal with Europe cannot include the so-called "Irish backstop," which is designed to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and Ireland, a member of the EU.

Even before the fresh proposals were spelled out, the Irish government poured cold water on a leaked proposal seen by the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Johnson's plan appears to cross red lines drawn years ago by European negotiators.

Nor is it certain that if a version of his plan were accepted by Brussels, he could win passage of the deal in a bitterly divided British Parliament.

At his speech before his fellow Tories, Johnson said that Brexit was foiling the country's ambition. He compared Britain to "a world-class athlete with a pebble in his shoe."

He blamed his fractious lawmakers.

"If Parliament were a computer, the screen would be stuck on the pizza wheel of doom," Johnson said. "If Parliament were a reality TV show the whole lot of us, I'm afraid, would have been voted out of the jungle by now. But at least we could have watched the Speaker being forced to eat a kangaroo testicle."

"That is why we are coming out of EU on Oct 31 come what may," Johnson said, warning his European counterparts that Britain "was ready" to leave without a deal.

And yet, a Bill passed by Parliament last month requires Johnson to seek a three-month delay of Brexit unless a deal is struck by Oct 19. Johnson has said that Britain will leave the bloc by the Halloween deadline and that he will obey the law, prompting many to wonder whether he is seeking a loophole.

Imagining a Britain beyond Brexit, Johnson spun Conservative proposals to install super-fast broadband, recruit thousands of new police officers, build new hospitals and expand Britain's bus network.

He was, the prime minister said, a "bus nut" who liked to "make and to paint very inexact models of buses."

With an eye towards a coming general election, Johnson also tore into opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, calling his Labour Party "fratricidal, anti-Semitic Marxists." Johnson's speech was peppered with jokes - some new, some old, some that seemed to unintentionally ridicule himself.

At one point, while praising Britain's renewable energy sector, he noted that at times wind and solar "are delivering more than half our energy needs." But "it was only a few years ago when people were saying that solar power would never work in cloudy old Britain and that wind turbines would not pull the skin off a rice pudding."

In fact, it was Johnson himself, as mayor of London, who said that six years ago.

After the speech, and as a detailed proposal winds its way towards Brussels, both sides of the channel were waiting to see what European leaders make of it.

The Irish border has proven to be one of the most difficult issues facing negotiators over the past three years. The open border on the island helped bring peace to Ireland. A guarantee of an open border is central to the Good Friday Agreement, which ended the Troubles, as the 30 years of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland are known.

Today, the boundary is mostly invisible. A driver whizzing between Belfast and Dublin is not required to stop for any customs check or security control. There are no cameras, not even a sign post.

The EU is also keen to "get Brexit done," but it has long signalled that it does not want border infrastructure on the island of Ireland.

Yet keeping a border open and free - if the two nations diverge on issues of trade and security - is not easy. Even friendly countries with the closest of ties have hard borders or at least some infrastructure, as do Norway and Sweden, Switzerland and the European Union, and the United States and Canada.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Johnson will propose a solution of "two borders, for four years." Northern Ireland, the paper said, would stay in the EU's single market for agriculture and industrial goods for four years, after which time Northern Ireland would decide whether to continue with the arrangement or align with the rest of Britain.

This would mean there would be customs checks between Northern Ireland and Ireland, which could happen away from the border, the Telegraph reported.

If Johnson does propose that the entire United Kingdom leave the customs union, it would mark a stark contrast with the Brexit deal negotiated by his predecessor as prime minister, Theresa May. Under that proposed agreement, the whole United Kingdom would have remained in the customs union.

The European customs union allows for free trade among the 28 member states. No tariffs or taxes are charged for the goods bought and sold among the members, who agree to charge the same tax on all goods entering the bloc from the outside.

But staying in proved problematic to Brexiteers - Parliament voted down May's deal three times. They want to be free of the EU customs union because membership limits Britain's ability to strike its own trade deals, with the United States, for example.

Britain wants to leave the European Union's single market - which allows for the free, frictionless movement of goods, services, capital and people - by agreeing to abide by EU rules and regulations, to keep everyone on the same, level playing field.

Some outside countries are members of the single market, but not members of the EU, such as Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Those countries get access to the giant marketplace but do not have much say in writing the rules.

Johnson didn't delve into the nitty-gritty of his Brexit proposals during his first speech as party leader. Instead, he ended it with another joke - this one about launching his rival Corbyn into space - before saying, "Let's get Brexit done and let's bring this country together."

He left the hall holding hands with his girlfriend, Carrie Symonds, who resides with him at 10 Downing Street as his second divorce is finalised.