Why is everyone getting so het up about EU position on Irish border?
The position is clear, there is a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, both ‘de facto’ and ‘de jure’. The Good Friday agreement blurred this, which was fine while both were members of the EU.
However, we want to leave the EU and diverge from it’s rules and regulations. If we don’t want a border to exist we need to provide the EU with a strong enough guarantee that Northern Ireland will not be used as a means of access to the single market, circumventing the EU rules and regulations.
I see only three solutions to this:
- Hold a border poll in Northern Ireland, allowing Northern Ireland to secede from the UK.
- Enter into a Customs Union agreement with the EU and accept that this means our freedom to enter into agreements with other countries that impinge on the EU rules and regulations is limited.
- Offer the EU a financial guarantee that no goods will transit from Northern Ireland into Republic of Ireland that do not fully comply with the EU rules and regulations. Possibly a fine, payable by the UK government, of up to half a billion Euros for every contravention.