In response to David Raynes: Soft borders can work. Let’s start with Ireland,
David wrote:
The border issue has undoubtedly been greatly exaggerated, simply to create a political tool, with which the EU’s puppet, Varadkar, has been able to manoeuvre that slow-witted Europhile Mrs May into a corner in which she has been told that she can obtain a deal.
But because the deal would be a total surrender of Northern Ireland, the DUP as an alert and useful bunch prevented that, thank goodness. Moreover there are sufficient patriotic and sensible MPs, in both the major parties, to defeat Mrs May’s deal, which is toxic with or without the so-called Irish backstop.
Trade between the two parts of the island of Ireland will undoubtedly carry on just fine for all the reasons that the article quite rightly explains. With goodwill and appropriate use of technology there simply will be no problem.
My hope, indeed belief, is that the various cross-party factions in both houses will continue squabbling, and thereby achieve absolutely nothing, except to prove to our electorate how utterly useless they truly are, and indeed how much we are in need of deep-rooted constitutional reform.
Tom Burroughes wrote:
Countries that get on peacefully with one another have borders of sorts but you don’t normally read of them as being a major deal, such as Canada/US, or Switzerland/France/Italy, etc. In the Swiss case, the country has single market access and access via about 120 bilateral deals, but isn’t in the customs union and is free to do its own trade deals outside the EU. (Swiss relations with EU aren’t always friendly, however, and the EU has resented how the Swiss are rich without kowtowing to Brussels.)
I am able to drive to and from Geneva, for example, without border customs controls. Sure, I understand Northern Ireland and its dark past have particular issues unlike those of Switzerland, but surely in this high-tech age the need for customs posts for goods is not a big issue. With issues of migration and ID, that can be a bit trickier, but not insurmountable.
In general terms I am convinced that the border issue has been exaggerated by those in Brussels determined to thwart the UK’s return to sovereign independence. The EU increasingly behaves like an empire, even if it thinks it is being benign. It isn’t and its behaviour reinforces my desire to leave as soon as practicable.
