Posted on 08/23/2019 4:27:24 AM PDT by Cronos
Only a separate, soft-Brexit status for Northern Ireland can resolve the backstop conundrum
Johnson got no joy in Berlin or Paris. Merkel’s meaningless 30-day “talks” period was greeted with ecstasy by his Tory press claque. But Macron merely pointed out that nothing had changed. The steeples were still there, telling London what not to do.
in NI no deal promises the ultimate horror, of a return to policing the 1921 partitioning of Ireland, this time with some ramshackle arrangement of border posts, customs checks and massive evasion.
... The partition was meant to be temporary. It has long been an agony for Britain, leaving it with an overseas province divided on religious lines and simmering with hostility towards and from its neighbour in the south. Two decades ago the Good Friday agreement appeared to ease the tension. Economic convergence replaced political antagonism. At long last, Northern Ireland generated good news, not bad.
..Northern Ireland did not vote to leave but to remain, and by 56%. Since then polls by LucidTalk are unequivocal. Sixty percent of Northern Irish voters are for some continued customs link to Ireland, explicitly separate from the rest of the UK. Even within the Unionist community, 40% are happy about a border down the Irish Sea
A majority in the north is clearly ready for exceptional status. Northern Ireland would remain in the United Kingdom. It might be drawn more into the orbit of the south, but that has already been the consequence of the Good Friday agreement – and a welcome one. It is better than a slither back to super-partition, as horribly echoed in this week’s paramilitary shooting in Belfast.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
There’s also the solution of “Give Northern Ireland back to the rest of Ireland, with ironclad guarantees for those living there, and be done with it.”
Problem solved.
well, the UK would be willing for the reunification to happen, but only if the Northern Irish vote to do so. Until Brexit it seemed like the majority were happy enough for the open borders status quo.
But with Brexit threatening a hard border, it looks like well over 60% support reunification.
The only catch is that the DUP - a party that supports the Torys from outside - don’t want that.
Give it back.
Agreed.
I thought the Colonial Era was over?
Only the ChiComs are doing it now with their Road & Belt, Belt&Road, Shoes&Socks, Bra&Panty or whatever . . .
If the Tossers took their other hand off the northern counties and let the Irish People solve their own issues, in their own Republic by re-uniting their citizens, the problem solves itself.
I have no dog in this hunt but I favor a hard Brexit. Let the Northern Irishers and the Irish republic work it out on their border. England and Scotland are on an island and they can handle their own border.
Yes...then chaos ensues. Let the Irish be Irish, I say!
As an Irish relative who was a ranking civil servant in the South admitted to my brother in private, "Dublin knows reunification would be a bloody mess and no wants to risk another civil war." Yes, after getting independence in the 1920s, the Irish in the South had a civil war -- an experience that works against eagerness for major political changes that might renimate old animosities.
I think a hard Brexit would have happened by now if not for the silly May 2017 General Elections that put The Tories in dependence to the DUP.
It looks like the majority of the Northern Irish would be happy with NI remaining in the customs union and still part of the UK but with a border in the Irish sea.
If Boris can make that happen - I think he can by basically bribing Sturgeon with an offer for Indyref 2
There is the complexity that not all the northern counties would vote to join the republic.
All of the counties near the border and Belfast itself have majorities to join the republic. But the rest, no or slim majorities.
What does one do about them?
it’s very dicey - the ideal scenario is the 1 country 2 systems - keeps everyone happy
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