What is the solution to the Irish border?

[MegCleary]

Keen to hear, as I am struggling.

Solo, I have long wanted an independent city state of London (at first in a semi-joking way but now I'm pretty serious about it). Cardiff, Manchester and other cities and towns that voted Remain could go the same way. Leave Little England to it.

SoloD

I hope you're being facetious.

Cancel the whole shit storm.

@CocteauTwins That would be my preferred solution and, not having come across many, well anyone who is for Brexit, I was beginning to hope that might be the way forward.

Last week, though, I met two people who are absolutely preBrexit, looking forward to being free of EU red tape. It took me a minute or two to even realise, by which time they had put forward their own solution to the border, the highly enlightened approach to 'hand back' NI. I didn't even bother to ask how that would work out at Westminster, what with the DUP having the balance of power....Sigh.

The amount of people who blithely suggest “giving NI back” is staggering. The arrogance of it is just awful!

Agree. NI has never been part of the Republic. It can't be just given back, that doesn't make sense!

go.mumsnet.com/?xs=1&id=470X1554755&url=www.irishcentral.com/opinion/others/reasons-why-a-united-ireland-is-definitely-on-the-way

Sorry....

<a class="break-all" href="http://go.mumsnet.com/?xs=1&id=470X1554755&url=www.irishcentral.com/opinion/others/reasons-why-a-united-ireland-is-definitely-on-the-way" target="_blank">https://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/others/reasons-why-a-united-ireland-is-definitely-on-the-way

Having problems with links but it's on

www.irishcentral.com

The alleged ten reasons why a united Ireland is definitely on the way?

Still a total shitfest six weeks later and only four weeks to sort something out. Cancel Brexit.

Indeed Cleebope2. She's blown Salzburg.

Possibly Northern Ireland can become an independent country along with Scotland and the South East of England and remain in the EU and Brexitland can leave to it's hearts content

Sounds good to me. Even better, Brexitland leaves the UK, rUK stays in the EU and we'll all happy :)

This depresses me so much. It is a disgrace that all the bloody Leave fuckers have nothing to say about the likely trouble a hard border in NI will cause and they didn't bloody think about this when they spun their stories about £350bn for the NHS. Bunch of absolute fucking fuckers. I hate the lot of them.

Leo Varadkar has said he was willing to compromise in the negotiations, but that Ireland could not step back from its requirement to have a legally enforceable guarantee that there would be no hard border in Ireland, even if the future trading relationship between the UK and the EU did not ensure it.

It's going to be a slug fest, it is going to be so ugly and horrible and all the while it will harm our economy and as a nation we become smaller and more pathetic.

I feel like we’re waiting for the apocalypse to happen. It’s very odd. Time for the people’s vote. We need a fantastic leader to emerge from this mess to take control and there isn’t anyone.

There is no easy or good solution.
We just need to make a decision and see it through.

There is a perfectly good solution. Cancel Brexit.

This is what annoys me about the great politicians we have here in NI

When will they acknowledge nobody actually cares about us and work for the good of the people?... work at all would be a start!

Then again when will the people of NI vote based on policy instead of religion?

As for the DUP they bang on and on about the 'union' they go on and on about NI must leave the EU too but they won't allow the people of NI to have the rights of our fellow citizens in the rest of the uk (abortion/ gay marriage)

What does backstop mean ???
Won't people who wish to illegally enter England, Scotland or Wales use a border free Ireland/ Northern Ireland to do so ?

Backstop means, I think, a sea border. I was called an idiot for suggesting that people and goods would sneak in or out

I'm a very insular English person but having been born in the late 60s i did at least grow up with visceral evidence of what happens when there is unmediated colonialism allowed to fester for decades, on telly every night. Xenia, you are an intelligent and well educated woman. The posts of you and 54321 make me despair because of their unmediated colonial arrogance. The idea that 'approval' is something that 'the mainland' can bestow or withold on NI depending on the population being good... God's sake. You know, surely, that some threads of distant family connection don't mean you know everything about another country. My Dad was born in India in the 30s, oddly enough this doesn't mean i have special insight into Indian affairs. Can i thoroughly recommend the book i always recommend, 'Making Sense of the Troubles'? I knew i needed to understand more and this book really helped. It was published a long time ago but has been updated.

To be fair on Xenia with whose opinions I often have issues - she did develop a greater understanding as a result of this thread and was prepared to listen and learn and adjust her language (unlike the WM Government, the ERG and their acolytes )

What does backstop mean

The backstop is nothing to do with people crossing borders, it's to do with keeping NI inside the customs union and parts of the single market to avoid the need for a physical customs border.

It's a very large concession by the EU (no other non-EU country is inside the EU customs union), in order to respect the GFA and the wishes of the Irish government.

Tentothree : '......NI has never been part of the Republic'

Northern Ireland which consists of 6 Ulster counties ( Ireland is divided into 4 provinces which contain X number of counties) became part of the U.K. after the Irish War of Independence of 1921.
A treaty was signed then giving UK the 6 counties in exchange for Irish independence.
These 6 counties were populated by the descendants of English and Scottish settlers who displaced the native Irish off their lands when the Irish rebelled against the English King and his armies back in the very early 1600s. It was known as the Plantation of Ulster.
Ulster was the last place in Ireland to fall to the English and it is said the Irish living there were treated very harshly because of that. Hence the forced plantation of outsiders.
'Northern Ireland' was only created in the early 1920s.
Ulster, which includes 'Northern Ireland' has been part of Ireland since time immemorial.
Ireland became a republic in 1948 after 800 years of rebellion against the British crown.
Both my parents are from NI.
One a Catholic and one a Protestant.

I wish people in England, Scotland and Wales were given the history of Northern Ireland so they would understand the problem better.

Is this why some Tories are hinting at another general election? Are they hoping they can get a big enough majority to be able to dump the DUP?

It's a very large concession by the EU

This is such an important point to note, and gives the lie to 'the EU is bullying us, they won't be flexible and give us everything we want." No, they won't give you unicorns and the sunlit uplands, but at least they are concerned about preserving peace in N Ireland. Which the Tory Brexiters give the impression of neither knowing or caring about.