If anything encapsulates the political insanity gripping the United Kingdom, surely it must be the sight of the reactionary Labour Party MP, Kate Hoey, arguing that the Irish “will have to pay” for the likely imposition of a “hard border” between Ireland and the UK-administered Six Counties in the north-east of the island. While the Antrim-born politician is well known for her unionist credentials, to witness a member of a mainstream European political party emulating the thinking of Donald Trump at his most incendiary really does illustrate the degree of atavistic tribalism sweeping public life in Britain. Much of it now directed towards this nation and its citizens, as even a casual perusal of the British press will sadly prove. The UK is fast-tracking itself towards the status of a pariah state, undermining and overturning decades of intergovernmental cooperation and diplomacy across Europe.
Kate Hoey: The Irish “Will Have To Pay” For A Brexit Border In Ireland
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
Putin must be laughing his socks off as a hard brexit and pariah status is the biggest wish beyond the wildest dreams imaginable. Hoey of course has appeared on the propaganda channel RT along with (very shamefully) a few Sinn Fein MEP’s and ‘Ming’ Flanagan along with the rest of the alphabet soup left.
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Cheap mé gurb í Meicsiceó a bhí le h-íoch as….
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Nach e ‘Mexican stand-off’ a th’ann? 😉
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Like many Brexiteers, Kate Hoey doesn’t seem to understand what a border is.
Those with long memories will recall what we had here long ago, when there really was a border — though it was Customs only. Then there was a Customs shed on one side, a ‘no man’s land’ and another Customs shed on the other side. It wasn’t “a Border” it was two sided. And that is what inevitably must come with a hard Brexit; both Irish and British Customs. And then, sadly, we can all fear that there will be ‘trouble’; none of us want a return to that, do we?
As fr any idea of a ‘wall’, a couple of minutes with a map will show just how unrealistic that is. Does it really have to be spelled out?
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I think that Hoey was one of the “border wall” camp during the conflict. Albeit of the cratered road and concrete blocks variety. I must research her opinion from that period. It would be good to get a couple of quotes.
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I was thinking of the pre-Troubles border when it was about Customs and goods; as you say, Hoey seems to have in mind the grotesque watch towers and military installations which were something else — control of people.
Another strange idea is that the new border is somehow uni-lateral; well, that’s how I understand some of the comments I’ve read and heard. It is as if only the EU will actually have one, as if the UK would not. Anyone with sense soon realises that a border between two jurisdictions with differing tariffs and regulations must be two-sided.
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Hoey is a maverick but in spite of her pro-DUP/TUV/UKIP stance she enjoys a huge majority in a constituency with a large Portugese population, 6 per cent Muslim community and a lively gay social scene. Go figure.
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I was in the BLP in the early 1990s in London, never understood then or since how she fitted into the party – she always seemed to assume remarkably reactionary stances – Countryside Alliance, anti-smoking bans etc. Amazing to think she was in the IMG back in the day.
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She is very much the odd-woman out in Labour. More Tory-lite than even Blairite.
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