The seemingly blasé or relaxed attitude of some mainstream politicians and commentators in the United Kingdom towards the possible failure of Brexit negotiations with the European Union is almost inexplicable when one considers the extraordinary customs arrangements likely to follow on from any irreconcilable break between the two trading partners. It’s not just the former militarised frontier around Britain’s disputed outpost in the north-east of Ireland that would see dramatic changes.
From Bloomberg News:
Belgium is preparing for the potential collapse of Brexit negotiations by bolstering its customs force with drones, submarine scanners and dozens of new officers.
As fears grow across the European Union of a “no deal” Brexit that would see the U.K. crashing out of the bloc without any transition period, Belgium aims to have its new regime in place by the end of March. Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, 2019, with or without a divorce agreement.
The Belgian federal government is investing in drones for surveillance of its coastline and the North Sea, scanners to operate underwater and additional dogs for the detection of drugs and cash…
No doubt the British will convince themselves that this is more public posturing and bluffing by their former Continental allies, which can be safely ignored by closing their eyes, putting their fingers in their ears and whistling the Dad’s Army theme tune to drown out all other thoughts.
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
A new poll by Lord Ashcroft Polls has revealed 44 percent of Northern Irish residents would vote in favour of quitting the UK and joining the Republic if a referendum was held tomorrow.
Forty-nine percent of respondents said they would vote to stay in the UK while seven percent said they did not know how they would vote.
Pollsters, who interviewed 1,666 Northern Irish adults between May 24 and 28, revealed even those who opposed a united Ireland believed a referendum would eventually be held.
Lord Ashcroft Polls said in the full report: “More than half of DUP voters said there should never be a referendum but fewer than one in five of them thought there never would be.
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Just gone up!
I wish they had asked the same question of voters north and south on how they would vote in a unity referendum. We need those exact stats to do a comparison between the 6 Cos. and the 26 Cos. I suspect that if they were asked the same “referendum tomorrow” question southern voters would have gone 50%+.
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I would be curious to know how much the Belgian Government has spent on the items described by Bloomberg. I suspect that Belgian voters would be pretty unhappy if it was just posturing and the EU gave in and gave the UK the cake/cherries it wants.
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