Irish border: Could Tories and DUP be heading for a clash?
Typical Tories.
Their partners-in-government, the Northern Irish DUP, have made it abundantly clear that they will not tolerate any hardening of borders between NI and the rest of the UK – and rightly so, in the opinion of This Writer.
But this clashes with the Good Friday Agreement that demands an open border with the Irish Republic; the problem is that the republic is in the EU and the UK must have a hard border with that bloc after Brexit.
So the Tories are preparing to stab the DUP in the back. Typical Tories.
There is no good answer to the issue. Ireland is in the EU and the UK must have a hard border with the EU and an open border with Ireland. It is not possible to resolve this – other than by imposing a hard border between NI and the rest of the UK.
Will this dissolve the agreement between the DUP and the Conservatives? Their pact depends on the NI party supporting the Tories on Brexit and this will not be possible if the Tories go through with the plan being proposed now.
And with the Lords dishing out defeat after defeat for the Tories on the EU Withdrawal Bill, this puts Theresa May and her cronies in a highly tricky situation.
One way or another, it seems the barricades will be going up soon.
A backup plan to impose border checks on trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK at ports and airports to avoid a hard border with the Republic of Ireland after Brexit has been drafted by senior civil servants.
Despite the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) angrily rejecting any suggestion of a border “in the Irish Sea”, a leaked paper reveals that officials have been working on a blueprint “to be deployed as necessary in the negotiation process”.
Source: Brexit plan drawn up for border checks between NI and rest of UK | UK news | The Guardian
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The Tories are the Nasty Party and the DUP are equally nasty. Both foster division and confrontation. Two nasties fall out.
All sounds a Little Bit “IRISH” to me. Hahaha lol
Britain shd have more loyalty to the irish and ireland after being entwined and connected for so many centuries and half of england vbeing of Irish and celt descent
This is where the “leaverage” lies.
If people wd use it. Not bowing down to cut throat axe Brexit but also not going back ot cotowing to an authoritative bully of EU like some abusive husband saying you wont survive and have to go back
Use the leaverage to get a better deal all round whether in or out. The whole point is better relationships and better trade and cooperation. They forget that in all their bitterness vendettas and staunch stonefaced positions.
I am 45% Irish according to my dna. and gramps on both sides catholic and protestant and the whole degradation and abuse, so I am biased
Also got snooty middle class white Momentum and writers in middle of Liverpool saying these people are nothing and white working class nothing. We have contributed nothing to socialism or the history of Labour Party.
OI THIS IS LIVERPOOL WHERE MOST GOT OFF THE BOAT AND PROVIDED AND WORKED IN UK FOR A PITTANCE.TO PROVIDE FOR OWN.AND BUILD THE COUNTRY.
Middle class white… Momentum? Shurely shome mishtake.
NEED A SHELAGH TAKING TO THEM. A BIG KNOBBLY ONE WITH A BIG KNOT ON THE END
They should tell Barmier the Irish border is nothing to do with him and to stop trying to make it part of the negotiation, or we walk away with no deal at all.
More fool us in that case. The Irish border is a problem for the UK, the EU and the Irish Republic.
One of the less-acknowledged influences on the Belfast Peace agreement was the fact that, with the UK and Ireland both part of the EU, both parts of Ireland were in the same economic, financial and trade bloc, so the “Irish Border” was fading away in significance less than 100 years since it was invented. The Irish Republicans could see that the artificial division across Ireland was simply ceasing to be of importance while the EU planners tended to regard the “Belfast-Dublin corridor” as the main growth point for the whole Irish economy.
So the “Leave” vote effectively scuppered one of the psychological mainstays of the peace process. Suddenly, people living to the north of the arbitrarily-drawn “border” will have to decide which group of countries they wish to adhere to, either the UK(England, Scotland, Wales and one-fifth of Ireland) or the EU (27 countries). That sort of decision should have been left behind when we were all in the EU. Now it rears its ugly head again. Different camps will harden their positions and many in England will shrug and claim it’s nothing to do with them! In fact, it is everything to do with them, as it was the English “Leave ” vote that actually decided the matter.