M. Grégoire
"Would-be criminals and terrorists are policed by services that cooperate as intimately as if they served only one sovereign. Britain and Ireland have found a way to be one marketplace, one travel area, one energy grid, one food emporium, one security partnership—while maintaining two independent political systems"
Brexit Could Reawaken Northern Ireland’s Troubles - The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/03/brexit-could-reawaken-northern-irelands-troubles/584338/
M. Grégoire
Reflecting about the border of Northern Ireland, I think that it is more a problem for the Republic than the UK.
Brexiteers in general want free trade with the EU, but no free movement of people. So the UK could just refuse to install customs booths along the border, and check passports for airplanes or boats crossing the Irish Sea — that is not so different from present practice.
If the Republic wants to respect the customs union, then *they* would need to install EU customs booths.
M. Grégoire
Of course, I'm probably not seeing the whole picture with respect to the Northern Ireland border. Comments or corrections would be very welcome.
nigelsezyarr
@mpjgregoire That's a pretty bad take. The issue isn't who would be responsible for customs booths. The people there see the open border as a crucial element of the Good Friday Agreement, and worry that getting rid of it will reignite the Troubles. Ireland is using the GFA as a legal cudgel against the UK because of that, and because standing up for the GFA is popular domestically.
nigelsezyarr
@mpjgregoire Rereading your comment, your point is more about Ireland staying in the customs union wrt freedom of movement, right?
Hmm.
I don't think there's any particular desire in the ROI to enforce the UK's custom policies. Politically, the ROI is generally pro-EU and anti-UK, for obvious reasons. I can't see the Dáil going for it.
M. Grégoire
@nigelsezyarr Guess I wasn't clear. My point was that a post-Brexit UK could easily keep the NI border open for people and goods (at least on their side of the border). It would be the EU saying to the Republic, "Hey, we don't have free trade with the UK, honour the customs union and put up barriers or else."
Yes, the barriers would ultimately be the result of #Brexit, but they'd also be because of the EU. The Republic would have an incentive to push hard for a quick trade deal.
Thoughts?
M. Grégoire
@nigelsezyarr UK could say, "We're honouring the GFA; it's Brussels who's disrupting it."
nigelsezyarr
@mpjgregoire I think you're missing the big picture. The UK (or at least its leaders) doesn't want open borders or EU institutions, that's why it's leaving. It also wants to uphold the GFA. It also refuses to have a border between Great Britain and NI. That's not a consistent position.
(That's a summary of https://youtu.be/J1Yv24cM2os , FWIW)
M. Grégoire
@nigelsezyarr Too simplified. The Brexiteers basically want walls that separates them from a) EU institutions and b) free movement of people. They do not want a wall against c) free movement of goods -- hence the desire for a Canada-plus trade agreement.
They could put the a) wall at the NI border, the b) wall in the Irish Sea, and there would be no c) wall, at least not erected by the UK. Wouldn't that basically satisfy the GFA, with goods and people freely crossing the NI border?
M. Grégoire
@nigelsezyarr Well, maybe, maybe not. The EU is a customs union, so they would tell Ireland to build a c) wall (no free movement of goods from NI into the EU), at least until an UK-EU trade agreement is reached. It took Canada eight years or so to finalise our deal.
OTOH, while the EU overall would feel the UK needs a deal more than the EU does, at least one EU member would be eager to remove barriers to the passage of goods.
M. Grégoire
@nigelsezyarr The reason I think a b) wall (no free movement of people) in the sea could be acceptable is that I don't think people would find it unreasonable to show ID at ferry terminals and airports. They probably do the latter already.
nigelsezyarr
@mpjgregoire Tell that to the Democratic Unionist Party. :P
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