to ask if you know what the Irish backstop is and do you care

[HurricaneFloss]

If you know what it is, please explain it very simply to me.

If you care - why?

If you don't - why?

It is all extra shit on top of all the other shit created by Brexit, businesses on both sides will be affected. Jobs will be lost.

Even if there was a chance of a United Ireland, The Unionists would never agree. Can you imagine the civil war, On the build up to the 12th of July some Unionists near create a civil war only the Republicans ignore them. I think it is far from peaceful in NI. I believe it is a sleeping tiger.

Chiffon Really

The only people it will effect are Northern Irish. It doesn't affect anyone else.

... And? It will affect a large chunk of the population of the UK. Surely the rest of the UK should at least pretend to give the slightest of shits?

NI is part of Britain.

No. NI is part of the UK, not part of Britain. That is a rather basic fact.

@YeOldeTrout - I care b/c I like travelling around the UK with low risk of IRA bomb threats, and not hearing about regular knee-capping & paramilitary violence in Norn.

And of course the violence perpetuated by the unionists and the British isn't worth mentioning.....

The big concern I have with the backstop is the potential reaction from the militant unionists. They will not accept it as they will see it as movement towards a united Ireland. They have plenty of experience of violence. They will have no problem in resuming a campaign of violence. Depending on who they target, this may also result in retaliation from republican paramilitaries.

I do know, I care. But I also don't think other remain areas for example Scotland should end up with a less advantageous then NI. I also know that the risk of violence isn't the same and it isn't really comparison but emotionally it is how I feel.

I've heard of it.

I can't see any way that Braxit deals of any kind can go ahead without a return to the troubles in NI, and I hate that.

A hard border will see the IRA campaign start again. Any kind of border or difference between NI and the Britain and the Unionists will start again. Either way trouble is heaped back on the people of NI, and potentially more if trouble spreads again.

Gibraltar is also screwed thanks to Brexit. They could be back to the frontier with Spain being closed again and that will have devastating consequences for them.

theymademejoin
Perceptive post but I really don't think the Irish will retaliate. This isn't their war or cause. It's one to be fought out by them alone.

I'm sorry, but why would the IRA care? Lol. The ignorance of what the IRA fought for is absolutely gobsmacking? The IRA really don't care about this. Unionists do, but the IRA? LOL

@Chiffon - if the nationists are targeted by the unionists, the republicans will retaliate, particularly if, as in the past, the British government basically abandon the nationists. History suggests the British won't protect them, although they are, I think, less likely to collude with the unionists as they are also likely to be targets.

Why would anyone target the Irish? If they do, which in all fairness they have done before, then they should expect war. But surely the Irish aren't the demons here?

It's clear that Unionists are gunning for a fight. I get it. They don't belong to anyone and that must fuck them up, but Ireland isn't the target for them surely, unless we're the whipping boy again.

As someone living in London, if they target their anger anywhere it will be here. Chances of that happening though are slim. They don't have the British might behind them anymore lol.

I guarantee it won't be a war in Ireland.

We'll all just go on and go to work and worry about what we're going to cook and wake up in the morning and realise we forgot to buy milk so drink black coffee, jump in the shower, read the rumour mill and go about our lives.

Oh FFS. I don't think I've ever seen a thread with such uninformed crap.

Backstop= theoretical nonsense that will never happen.
It's a concept, nothing more. Equate it to Area 51. It's fantasy.

Oh Theresa, you're up late.

As an English person who voted to Remain I feel utterly embarrassed by Chiffon and everyone like them.
I care about the issue of the Irish border: having lived in NI I know just how fragile the situation is and believe that it should be THE most important issue on our politicians' minds regarding Brexit. Instead we have the likes of Boris and JRM using it as a stage for grandstanding and building their vile political legacies.

I can't see a solution, I'm as devastated now as I was in June 2016. It feels like the ending of that WH Auden poem where it says "and nothing now can ever come to any good." If only there was a way for London, Scotland, and NI (Astonishingly Wales voted in favour of Brexit in contrast to what a pp said), to remove themselves from this sorry mess.
I hope the people of NI know that there are many of us over here who do care very much.

Why are you embarrassed by me?

Not a nice thing to say really? I'm embarrassed by Chiffon and everyone like them? I'm a person. Meet me in person and say it to my face.

I'm embarrassed for you. With your sad little insipid views. You don't know what to be thinking. Dimwit.

I’m old enough to remember “The Troubles “, I remember, on holiday, hearing that the McDonalds I and my friends regularly visited, had been bombed.

IMO one of the IRA or the UDA (or whatever their current incarnations call themselves) will find a reason for violence for any border, if it’s between North and South the IRA will kick off, if it’s NI and the mainland the UDA will kick off...

At that point, there will be tit for tats and the whole ungodly mess will start again. I don’t believe that Boris or Rees Mogg are old enough to have had any day to day real understanding of what The Troubles really meant.

Almost any kind of Brexit will seriously damage the economy of NI, and it is a historic fact that when there is an economic downturn the extremists gain support.

I strongly believe that one of the main benefits of the EU is that it has made internecine conflicts irrelevant or has at least toned them down, Ireland, Basque, former Yugoslavia.

I don’t believe that there is a practical solution to the “Irish Problem “ , other than a very soft, and therefore meaningless Brexit.

I would imagine all of us posting remember the troubles.

It's TM doing the talking though.