I’m sorry but that is one of the most facile things I have read on the issue. Reducing the Irish problem to “trade arrangements” is either disingenuous or deluded. The problem isn’t moving goods and services, it is, and always has been, the expectations of the populations of two separate nations occupying one island.
Some (the republicans) demand free movement throughout the island. They have proven over the course of decades that they will resort to murder and terrorism to bring that about and they only stopped because of the Good Friday Agreement. And that was only possible because mutual membership of the EU made the border effectively redundant.
But you have others (the loyalists) who are rabidly pro unionist. They will not stand for a border of any description between Ulster and the mainland and their parliamentary representatives, the DUP have already expressed that. There’s no border between Wales and England, so why do Northern Irish get second class citizenship status, being made to feel like non-UK citizens? And loyalists have been just as violent as the republicans in the past.
Note how, though, the UKIP mouthpieces you linked to avoid mentioning that altogether, yet without it how the fuck will the UK ever be able to stem migration - which let’s face it a majority of Brexit voters wanted ahead of everything else -when anybody who sets foot in Ireland can walk across the soft border to NI then make their way to the mainland at their leisure without further checks?
This though: “Although there is no explicit obstacle to a hard border in the Good Friday Agreement, it could be seen, and is certainly being presented as a barrier by those ideologically opposed to Brexit, as being contrary to the ‘Spirit of Concord’ and the undertaking to remove security installations, though the latter refers specifically to military installations and not civil ones.
A hard border, then, is not prohibited by the peace agreement, though it is undesirable and, more to the point, completely unnecessary.“ ... This takes the cake. No it’s not prohibited. The UK can impose it whenever it wants. But it comes with bombs, carnage and murder, same as it did for 80 years. But hey, someone has to be prepared to take one for Team UK, it’s for the greater good and fuck ‘me, they’re only Irish eh?“certainly being presented as a barrier by those ideologically opposed to Brexit”. No, it’s being presented as a barrier by angry madmen with guns who will murder or maim your children in a heartbeat. UKIP can reduce it to ideology if they want. But the suggestion that this can be overcome through goodwill is laughable. These people have never shown goodwill in their lives.
Utter, utter bollocks.
That is such a good post. Dispelling one of the many, far too many, myths floating around about this split.
I would say this though on the border and people crossing issue. It's not too big a deal really, as currently UK/Ireland still do border controls for each other. And it's already been agreed that UK/EU will still be visa free access, so stopping people coming in on that front won't change. If Merkel gives 2 mm refugees passports then they will still be able to walk through borders into the UK no problems. They just won't be able to work, setup shop, claim benefits etc.
Now, the tricky part is obviously where the immigration rules are different for the UK/EU. But given that each country has always allowed it's own rules for those outside the EU, there is little change here.
Hence, I don't think the entry is that much of a deal.
