Is This Northern Ireland Fiasco The Final Nail In The Coffin Of Brexit?

[david small]

Yet more shenanigans to be played out. Betrayal of 17.4 million voter.

[ToraToraTora]

why are we bothered it's the EU's problem. If they and ROI want a border have one. simples

[Cassa33333]

The UK government should just get a soft boarder ready. Get the technology and all that in place and leave the rest to the EU to sort out.

There should be no back stop. There is no need of one if we don’t want one.

[Kromovaracun]

Having a hard border would have significant implications for NI, which is part of the UK. I find it a little bizarre that so many patriots seem to find the idea of surrendering territory so appealing rather than make a pragmatic compromise.

[ToraToraTora]

who is surrendering territory? We have not need to do anything, if the EU demand a border they can impose one inside their territory. Why is that so difficult to grasp. This whole charade since June 2016 has been an exercise in the unnecessary.

[Kromovaracun]

There were replies earlier in the thread to the effect of 'cast Northern Ireland' away.

//This whole charade since June 2016 has been an exercise in the unnecessary.//

We agree on something!

[KARL]

Cassa, if you think the UK can unilaterally decide the way forward regarding international relations then you are simply mistaken - although there is plenty of evidence that you are far from being alone, that is the tragedy of this situation and largely how it came about. Even if the UK, in its shambolic inability to get its act together, simply froze in some sort of catatonic state when the deadline passes, then the rest of the world would simply proceed in its way and that would be a properly hard border with all the other ways/things that go along with a collapsed state of affairs. According to the latest news, there are already talks under way between some in Northern Ireland and the Republic about unification - if something like that comes to fruition then we will be seeing the beginning of the break-up of the UK. This may well resolve all the Brexit conundrum and at that those part(s) of the UK which voted for Brexit will get it and have to deal/live with it. Job done and life goes on.

[Old_Geezer]

If lives in the RoI are to be turned upside-down it's not because the border tail should wag the Brexit dog, it's because the government of the RoI and the EU is threatening to make the border non-open. The UK and Brexit are fine with the open border.

[Old_Geezer]

If Ireland want unification (and I'd expect violence to erupt there if that seemed a possibility) then the RoI could simply ask to return to the UK fold, and exit the EU with us.

[ichkeria]

‘Cut NI loose’
‘Leave the EU’
Welcome to the simple world of AB lol :-)

[ichkeria]

Slight correction:
The ROI does not a border of any sort and neither do most people who live around it.
The EU wants to please the ROI and the UK is in a hell of a muddle and frankly doesn’t really know what to do :-)
‘Brexit’ as such if that can be said to want anything specific, is largely in the same position as the UK, tho not sure I would recognise ‘Brexit’ as a sentient being (!)

[Peter Pedant]

and vindication of 17.3
remember there were people who didnt want Brexit

and hey wasnt President Trump elected on less popular vote?

as is said so many times to Remoaners - stop moaning and bit the bullet !

[Peter Pedant]

// ‘Cut NI loose’ :‘Leave the EU’
Welcome to the simple world of AB //

add in - bring back sovereignty, limit immigration ( but not Megan) and free hundred million a week to the NHS

and you will complete the standard gammon ABer on offer today !

[Old_Geezer]

The RoI (and the EU) continually say they don't want a hard border but their actions indicate the reverse. If the people don't want one they should have a word with Leo; tell him to stop trying to push his issue onto the UK and do something about arranging keeping the soft border. Not a UK issue, not a UK muddle.

Of course the EU and it's inability to work a soft border to their market, and merely coming up with suggestions they know are totally unacceptable (which can only be in order to try to thwart progress as far as anyone can see) is the cause of the trouble. Their market, their rules, they're the cause of the issue. The way out of that would be for the RoI to leave the corrupt, possibly sinking, ship too.

[mushroom25]

northern Ireland voted to remain.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-36614443
the solution is in their own hands - cede to the republic.
(I can just hear the ghost of Ian Paisley spluttering with speechless rage.....)

[Kromovaracun]

A border clearly concerns both parties. It is possible to have a soft border if the UK remains in the single market (or at least the relevant parts thereof). That's why there are relatively soft borders in Norway and Switzerland, despite neither country being EU members. But the UK has repeatedly said they aren't going to do that and don't seem to have any coherent suggestions about what to do instead. The cabinet cannot even agree over whether to stay in the customs union or not - something which it is entirely possible to do without being an EU member.

[Kromovaracun]

Also it is narcissistic in the extreme to believe there is any chance of Ireland leaving the EU for our convenience. The reason the border is a problem that needs to be solved is that the UK won't stay in the SM, is undecided about the customs union, and is being staggeringly unclear about everything else.

[ichkeria]

What’ll happen is there don’t be a border of any sort and everything else will have to fit in around that somehow.
It’s the ‘somehow’ that no one has a clue about yet

[Khandro]

The idea that the Republic would leave the EU is highly risible, they have done fantastically well out of it. Anyone who travelled around the South prior to their joining in 1973 would have seen a very poor and run down infrastructure. I clearly remember farm gates made from old bedsteads etc. an astonishing difference could then be seen returning in the eighties an on.
Their priorities are quite different from those of the UK, notwithstanding their ingrained resentment to it.

[Old_Geezer]

Ireland leaving the EU for their convenience must surely be the pragmatic solution you referred to.

[ichkeria]

Anyone thinking that Ireland wants to leave the EU needs their heid felt, as they say in this part of the world (!)
Where did that come from? It’s ok a par with the Rees-Mogg independence wet dream which is equally demanding of some phrenetic attention :-)