With the news that the European Union has comprehensively rejected the United Kingdom’s written proposals to deal with the anomalous position of its legacy colony in the north-east of Ireland, and specifically the future composition of any “Brexit border” around the contested region, the question remains: what next? According to media reports, the UK’s dual set of plans were subject to detailed and forensic analysis by senior EU officials before they were dismissed as unrealistic and unworkable.
Indeed, the impression one gets is of incredulity in Brussels when faced by London’s alternative suggestions to the present situation of an open and invisible frontier on the island. Notable among the rejected ideas is a scheme best described as a “look-the-other-way” option where authorities would simply ignore customs regulations for certain volumes or types of cross-border trade and traffic. As Britain’s former ambassador to the continental bloc recently pointed out, the country’s belief that it can find a technological solution to the border issue is now regarded as the “fantasy island unicorn model” in the capitals of Europe.
Despite the attempts of the right-wing British press to claim Eurosceptic solidarity and support from European Union member states like Poland and Hungary, both of which, like the United Kingdom, have swung significantly towards isolationism in recent years, there is very little evidence of any sympathy for the UK’s position across the EU. Suggestions to the contrary are more evidence of the “magical thinking” blinding the country’s politicians, officials and journalists to the realities of continental politics and interconnectivity.
Britain’s determination to go it alone, to maximise its disconnection from Europe through a so-called “hard Brexit”, can only come about by further diluting its control over the Six Counties. After all, that process began with the bilateral Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, the subsequent multiparty Belfast or Good Friday Agreement of 1998 and the follow-on St. Andrews Agreement of 2006. In the interests of peace and good relations with its neighbour, the United Kingdom has been compromising its sovereignty over the occupied territory for three decades.
It follows, then, that the logical and sensible next step in the present crisis is the agreed transformation of “Northern Ireland” into a special economic zone of the UK and EU, with any proposed customs checks taking place at air- and seaports either side of the Irish Sea. That way, London could pursue its dreams of an Empire 2.0 unrestricted by the concerns of its former partners, while Dublin and Belfast (and Brussels) could continue the hard work of fostering peace, harmonisation and prosperity on the island.
Anything else is just the fevered dream of extremist right-wingers and Brexiteers in the United Kingdom and its colonial outpost in Ireland, of the xenophobic Conservative Party and the hibernophobic Democratic Unionist Party. A dream destined to lead the peoples of both island-nations back to a bloody and relentless nightmare from which they will all struggle to awake.
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
unite Ireland, finally. which they should have done in 1922.
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In 1922 the NI was producing 80% of industrial output if the entire area of Ireland, the shipyards, aircraft etc it was of value to the Brits .
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But if an Irish Sea border is even seriously considered, entirely sensible as that would be, the DUP would withdraw their support for May’s minority Westminster government. Would they dare? Dare they not?? Who will blink first 😉
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True, though what would the result be? A Labour/SNP/PC coalition to thwart a return of a Tory/DUP one led by Rees-Mogg? 😉
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Oh what fun they’ll have 🙂
At least the SNP have a sense of direction …
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NI laws are already different in various ways from the rest of the UK. If the DUP object to yet another difference they may well get Corbyn to talk to, and they won’t like that. However, they are so intransigent and thrawn that they might think it worth it just to give May a bloody nose.
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As chance would have it this has just been posted :
https://macalbasite.wordpress.com/2018/04/20/the-people-must-react-to-repeal-the-act/
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Thanks for that. I’ll try to pass it around.
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I think they will May the heave ho, and they seem intent on a hard break from the EU, they have the backing of a lot if money the Tory right led by Mogg and I suspect he will be the next PM. Corbyn appears to have not made enough progress looking ay YOUGOV polls.
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True, Corbyn and the BLP is slipping back from its initial high polling. Would May call everyone’s bluff and go for a second election? Will she try to secure a deal on the customs union and be hit by the infuriated Brexiteers? Would a Tory heave and a new leader go full Brexit and hope that constituency boundary changes in the UK would yield extra Tory seats in an election four years hence?
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