Can we have a NI Brexit thread?

[Burntcustard]

I am ex-NI, now living in London after 20 years away. Having grown up near the border, with memories of nighttime evacuations and and the constant hum of helicopters, I couldn't wait to leave.

I look at the implications of Brexit and I'm worried. May may say that she wants to have no hard border, but how will that be possible with leaving the customs union? The only practical solution I can see to that is to have the border at the ferry ports.

What is the mood over there? Do the DUP still think Brexit is great?

Yep - but passports checks between NI and GB would seems like ceding the border wouldn't? Unionists wouldn't be keen on that even if they do take their holidays in Sligo!

And of course, what about the cross border workers, another issue.

@Peregrina

Of course she knows about GFA didn't Brokenshire tell her lol.

Apparently she had a phone conversation with Enda Kenny the Irish Taoiseach (PM) the night before her speech. I'd say he put her right on that one, which is why I think she mentioned the border issue. Gulp!

I still don't think she cares about NI and wishes it would just go away TBH.

NI Secretaries must feel they are in the bold corner or the naughty step by now.

@Peregrina

But passport checks wouldn't do anything for the movement of goods, would they? (quote)

FGS this is getting really ridiculous now. I think you have a valid point. Brexit seems to be largely framed on NO MORE Freedom of movement of people, i.e. the immigration issue and that's where things have been focused really.

So if border control is only between NI and GB what happens to Customs control between ROI and NI? One is in EU the other is not, so presumably tarriffs will apply.

Well maybe they will only check the articulated trucks! Still need a border control for that though.

It is really great to tic tac here. I doubt May's cabinet has even considered all the things we are teasing out.

Am I still going to be allowed to bring ROI taytos to NI??!!

Yes Corporal, but you might have to show your passport first.

There's nothing like Tayto on white sliced pan with a slice of Kilmeaden cheese on one side of the bread before you crush the Tayto on top. Kerrygold or Dairygold slathered on the other slice. Yum.

But will I have to pay customs tax? Bringing EU goods into the UK??

I foresee a career change for me - tayto smuggler.

I assume you mean ROI tayto extra not the weird yellow packeted northern imposter tayto.

Yes Corporal. I mean the ROI red pack, nothing else will do.

Interesting thread, I live in NI, about 5 miles from the border with the ROI. I. Lass myself as Irish although I hold both passports.

Interesting report in the radio about 10 mins ago. There are two sides to the border, the U.K. Side as well as the European side. Britain may not have a choice, Europe in theory could direct that a hard border is put in between NI and ROI May would of have very little say in it as she pulls us out of the free movement within Europe part through Brexit.

The opening of borders between the countries has a lot to do with the peace process and if a hard border is put in then I can see this causing a change in people's mindsets, hopefully not but a return to violence could occur.

Re the DUP at the minute they have more things to worry about, like the RHI scheme and a DUP minister yesterday stating that the DUP had no intention of holding up part of the St. Andrews agreement which they signed up to - it really is a case of every time they speak to the media they make another blunder.

The issue is some of the assholes here will still vote on a then and is basis. A Protestant politician summed it up perfectly when she said that NI is in trouble because some people would rather be robbed by a Protestant than led by a Catholic.

I'm not sure how it will pan out either.
I anticipate the loyalists being the most miffed. Whether there is zeal on their side for a return to arms is not something I know, but I do know that republicans would happily return to tit for tat if anything did start.

Oh my god! I had not even thought of the taytos!
Won't somebody think of the crisps!

It's a fiasco.

*them and us basis

Just marking place to catch up later. Thanks for the thread, OP. This is one of the things that's been worrying me the most (I am old enough to remember the tail end of the Troubles), and I don't think anyone in Westminster has thought/cares about it very much at all.

This interests me too.

Apologies if it has been answered (haven't RTFT) but has there ever in the past been a hard border between NI and ROI in any incarnation ?

And given how there is a strong Irish contingent in US politics, what is their view in the US ? Particularly the NORAID types ?

Well if you don't class soldiers lying in ditches a hard border, then no.

Or concrete poured into mounds so you couldn't cross roads, or border checkpoints where police and soldiers had to be flown in by helicopter as the roads were too dangerous to drive in

It's never been a customs border or even an immigration check though has it? The border posts were there for security reasons only weren't they?

There were customs borders too at a time, to be fair I can't remember the customs men doing much but they did search occasionally- that was before the eec and single market though.

Well I'd consider an armed border a hard border anyway. We rarely crossed the border as df used to be scared shitless of being interrogated at gunpoint.

I have vague memories of the train being stopped at the boarder, too and of soldiers coming on to search us, but I was little and might be remembering wrongly.

I can spell 'border', honestly.

I would say, if the will is there, the movement of people can be got round. In N Norway along the Russian border, residents of either side within 30km have freedom of movement to go across. It ought to be possible to work out something similar between RoI and N I. Norway is in Schengen BTW.

Has May got the imagination to think of something like this?

Norway is a member of the EEA (with Iceland and Lichtenstein) and as such allows free movement of goods and services same as full EU members under the Single Market.

There again comes the old chestnut. FREE MOVEMENT and the Single Market no matter what way you look at it I think.

There were customs checks until 1992

The Norway/Russia border agreement of 2010 only applies to those who can prove they have lived on either side of the border for at least three years, and within the designated border zone. They can then cross for up to fifteen days visa free under a special border resident permit/ID card.

I suppose at a stretch, all ROI and all NI residents who can prove the same, could get a similar permit aswell. But it really would be bizarre and would still need ID/passport checks I presume.