Boris’s Irish solution - is it workable?

[elprup]

It seems like it could be a viable solution to me, although I’ll admit that I’m by no means an expert on the subject. What do you think?

'Based on some posts, not sure if Ireland wants to inherit Northern Ireland?'

Not sure if you can inherit part of your own country tbh

@MysteryTripAgain - Johnson’s border solution works. No hard borders between UK and Ireland. Checks are done elsewhere. In many cases checks will be at the point of origin before they enter Ireland. Easy peasy.

No, it doesn't work. Firstly, it would rely on technology that does not yet exist. Secondly, the cost to the many small businesses that send stuff across and back over the border, would be ruinous, thirdly, stormont could pull out for no reason at any of the 4 yearly reviews, and fourthly, even if none of the above were an issue, it would require us to trust the UK to keep its word and we've all seem how much their word is worth.

Do you think this would get through parliament?

@RuggerHug - As I said above, what BJ proposed means you couldn't leave Donegal(in the Republic) to get anywhere else in the Republic without getting checked. It sucks, I remember it.

Not quite. I've been to donegal many times without having to go through NI or being checked. It depends on what part of the Republic you're trying to get to. Mind you, the cross over to NI was never very pleasant.

...to be approved by Stormont NI Assembly.

Has anyone spotted this tiny problemette?

@MockersthefeMANist

...to be approved by Stormont NI Assembly.

Has anyone spotted this tiny problemette?

Yes. I should have added that in as fifthly in my post above.

Anyone who doesn't give a shit about a border needs to watch Derry Girls. Beneath the humour, the teenage stuff and the constant swearing lurks a chilling account of how ordinary life was for those living in NI prior to Good Friday. Never again.

I've been to donegal many times without having to go through NI or being checked.

This was if Johnson had his DMZ with checks 5 or 10 miles back from the actual border.

I'm genuinely not even sure how a question to which the simple answer is "no" has got so many answers .

Actually I don't even understand know why the media are engaging with this. People who know how to draft legal documents are saying that it reads like it was drafted by an amateur. The proposal is obviously ludicrous ("I know! Why don't we do away with the border .. and replace it with three separate borders!") and Johnson doesn't mean for it to be taken seriously anyway.

Unless Ireland also decide they quite fancy quitting the EU too (Irexit?), there is no workable solution. They’d be crazy to do that, but then we were crazy to do it so who knows.

I’m literally amazed this is a shock to anyone. This was discussed extensively before the referendum, by prominent former prime ministers, no less.

I think it is a hostile act to attempt to insist on extensive infrastructure 5-10 miles within the border of a neighbouring sovereign state. And doing 100 years almost to the day of the introduction of the Home Rule bill which partitioned Ireland is...... no words for it.

Johnathan Powell has called it. It's an offer the EU can't not refuse, and cue the rabid tabloid Brexit hounds, plus the Telegraph, whose cartoons recently have been bizzare in the extreme, as they blame Johnny Forriner for not agreeing to our entirely reasonable demands.

Just seen the cunt's going to try and prorogue Parliament again next Tuesday. I guess this game continues until all opposition has expired from vicarious embarrassment

Juncker says PM's plan has 'some problematic points' but does not say no, and talks go on"...

Juncker knows if the EU reject it out of hand then no deal will be perceived as the EUs fault (although it will be blamed on them anyway)

He’s playing the game by allowing discussions to continue which will force BJ to concede it’s actually bollocks.

@Peregrina - oops. Sorry. It was the "I remember it" bit, coupled with being in a rush, that caused me to misread it.

What hasn't been mentioned so far here, is the reason why there is a Northern Ireland,

It is because the U.K invaded Ireland, currently leaving it in two parts.

When you invade a country, it is going to come back to haunt you later.

The Eu have had to deal with Orban, Salvini and plenty of other wackos, so they know the form. They will come back with detail piled upon detail, patiently explaining that no, you cannot have your cake and eat it.

My husband is a lorry driver. He regularly takes goods to England via ferry from larne to cairnryan in Scotland.

Then to be as economically efficient as possible with both fuel and driver hours so that the drivers don’t have to spend a day resting up along the road or going over their legal hours they bring a different load of goods back ( can be an entirely different product from food to builders materials) via Holyhead in Wales over to Dublin (there would have to be a checkpoint here as entering EU ROI) and then drive back to NI diverting en route to one of these customs points before reentry into the UK and then diverting again to another after they enter NI before finishing their goods drop off and back to their lorry base before they run out of legal driver hours. It’s already tight enough currently

Disaster for the NI transport industry

Several posters have already pointed out that Bozo doesn't intend for his proposal to be taken seriously. They were obviously conjured up on the back of a fag packet.
It's simply a flag waving opportunity to gain support from the Leavers who voted for the Brexit Party instead of the Tories in the European Elections. He's desperate for a snap election and needs to get Farage's followers onside otherwise the Leave vote will be firmly split between the two (Nazi) nasty parties.

@FinallyHere

I think that issue with unfortunately be solved by the Tory’s dismantling the NHS and selling it to US companies. Along with loss of agricultural payments and general cuts in a “survival of the fitness” post hard Brexit UK will make joining a United Ireland and the EU more attractive to those in NI

I also think Ireland would bring in significant constitutional protections for the minority tradition.

whyamidoingthis You're grand, I promise there were paragraphs when I hit post.

It’s a disaster - I live in a border county - I have 3 “main” passes into the “free state” within 10 miles of my house (never mind all the backroads) there’s another 4 “main” passes within about 25 miles - that I can literally think of offhand. I have no idea where a custom check would
Even be placed here? Fortunately I didn’t live through the worst of the troubles but I did sit in checkpoints and have car checks etc etc when we were on family days out

Tony Connelly's commentary here - www.rte.ie/news/2019/1002/1080724-brexit-analysis-uk-offer/

Unfortunately a proper hard border means destroying a large number of border crossing to allow proper control over the remaining crossings.
During the troubled roads were blown up by the authorities to stop people crossing and funnel all traffic through approved checkpoints.

The proposal isn’t workable. The audience is not the EU but leave voters. The letter has a list of complicated checks which will form a hard border. This is appalling behaviour from the DUP and just thrown NI under a bus. And for what? All opinion polls have shown that the majority of people in NI were happy with the backstop. Yes, remain was preferred but the backstop was liveable.

Most English people do not understand that most people on the NI side of the border don’t want the border to be there. Every single N.I. border constituency has a Sinn Fein MP. The border was not created to reflect local populations. The Unionist population is mostly in the North East near Scotland but NI was made larger as it was felt too small to be viable. This means that the border runs alongside communities who think it should not exist. Any checks or surveillance on the people there feels like hostile acts.

The place is a tinderbox and Johnson has just lit a match.