#brexit backstop

[thoughtlessarse]

Boris Johnson ‘expressed surprise’ at scale of Irish border checks

A senior EU source has lifted the lid on Brexit talks.

BORIS JOHNSON reportedly expressed surprise when informed of the level of checks that would still be required on island of Ireland as part of his solution to the Irish border issue, EU insiders have claimed. Senior EU sources speaking to The Guardian claimed the UK Prime Minister was given “reality check” at the complexity of the situation at hand during a two-hour lunch with Jean-Claude Juncker and the EU’S chief negotiator Michel Barnier in Luxembourg. 

 Johnson is said to have failed to fully comprehend the crucial role of the shared customs territory in the Irish backstop and the sheer scale of checks that would still be required. The UK Prime Minister was also shown how allowing Northern Ireland to stick to common EU procedures on food and livestock administered under EU sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) rules, would fail to prevent additional checks on most goods crossing the Irish border.

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It is clear Johnson regards the island of Ireland as only containing farmers and that, quite frankly, he is clueless as to what else would be needed at the border.

[thoughtlessarse]

A typical hour in the life of the Irish border

The invisible frontier is not an arcane footnote of the Brexit process but an everyday part of people’s lives and livelihoods

There are 72m road vehicle crossings a year between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, according to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra). There are also eight trains daily in either direction between Dublin and Belfast. About 14% of those crossings are consignments of goods, some of which may cross the border several times before they reach a consumer. In border areas it is common for milk which is collected in Ireland to be pasteurised and packaged in Northern Ireland and then sent back over the border for sale in supermarkets.

Overall, 32% of Northern Ireland's exports to Ireland are classified as "food and live animals". A no-deal Brexit would effectively end this trade. UK government advice says that "to transport animals, products of animal origin (POAO), fish, shellfish, crustaceans, germplasm or fishery products from the UK to the EU in the event of no deal, you’ll need to ensure the trade route for your goods allows for your consignment to be checked at a border inspection post (BIP) at the first EU country you enter for export."

There are two BIPs in Ireland: one at Dublin port, and the other at Shannon airport in the middle of the island. This means that farmers in Fermanagh who wanted to sell livestock at the market in nearby Sligo would have to send their animals to Belfast, across the sea to Scotland, by road through England to Holyhead in Wales, back across the sea, to Dublin, and right across Ireland.

[thoughtlessarse]

Brexiteer Tory MPs 'to force through no-deal even if backstop is removed'

Moderate Tories are facing a 'moment of choice' as Boris Johnson takes Britain towards a no-deal Brexit, former minister warns

Moderate Conservatives have warned that hardline Brexiteers are determined to “force no-deal on the country” after a senior European Research Group official said its members would vote down a deal with Brussels even if the controversial backstop was removed. One former minister said Boris Johnson had made himself “the willing prisoner” of the group of eurosceptic backbenchers and was doing everything he could to make a “catastrophic” no-deal happen. The new prime minister has made the removal of the backstop - designed to keep the Irish border open after Brexit, but branded “undemocratic” by the Johnson administration - a red line before he will enter talks with Brussels on a new EU withdrawal deal.

If Arlene Foster wants to point the finger at those trying to destroy the British union she only has to look at the ERG and her own actions.

[thoughtlessarse]

Boris Johnson pledges to drop backstop in 'orderly' Brexit plan

Tory leadership frontrunner says he would push for alternative arrangements

Boris Johnson has claimed he can achieve an “orderly, managed Brexit” on deadline by ditching the Northern Irish backstop in favour of “alternative arrangements”. Giving an extensive BBC interview after facing criticism for ducking media scrutiny, the Conservative leadership frontrunner insisted he was not aiming for a no-deal Brexit. “I think that we can get to a situation in which we are able to leave smoothly with an orderly, managed Brexit, and that’s what we should be aiming for,” he told the World at One. “But the only way to make sure that we convince our partners that we’re determined to get that outcome is to prepare for no deal – and I think people do understand that.” Asked what he would do about the backstop, which he described as “that prison, that Hobson’s choice”, Johnson pointed to the Brady amendment. Passed by parliament in January, with the support of the government, the amendment called for the backstop to be replaced with unspecified “alternative arrangements” – although the government then tried to renegotiate this with Brussels and failed.

Northern Ireland is not something Brexiteers planned for. It never entered into their tiny little heads. Their understanding of the Good Friday Agreement, or rather lack thereof, will be the undoing of the UK as we now know it. Irish reunification will be the outcome and hopefully that will spur on the Scots to independence. Nicola Sturgeon should plan for Indyref2 on that basis.

[thoughtlessarse]

Why, sometimes,” the Queen said to Alice, “I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” The Tory leadership candidates seem to have been particularly busy before breakfast. Between them they have come up with a veritable Wonderland of wheezes to resolve the Northern Ireland backstop issue. Insert a time limit or an exit mechanism. Set up a border council. Expect the EU to trust in technological solutions before they have been discovered. Change the UK’s negotiating team. Conjure up Angela Merkel riding to the rescue. Crash out of the EU and pretend the problem doesn’t exist. Even a respectful stratagem to pay Ireland for the technology. Stage direction: doff cap. God bless you, sir. Unfortunately, comprehension levels about Ireland have slipped back somewhat since Queen Elizabeth’s state visit to Ireland in 2011.

On the Irish backstop, leadership contenders are Tories in Wonderland | Bobby McDonagh | Opinion | The Guardian

[thoughtlessarse]

EU says it would not open talks with UK after no-deal Brexit until it agrees to divorce bill and Irish backstop

The EU would refuse to open trade talks with Britain after a no-deal Brexit until the UK decided to sign up to the main elements of the withdrawal agreement anyway, the European Commission has said. Speaking in the European Parliament on Wednesday Jean-Claude Juncker said the Irish border, citizens rights, and the divorce bill would need to be agreed before any other negotiations could begin. The announcement pours cold water on Brexiteer hopes that the UK could get a better deal by refusing to pay the unpopular £39 billion financial settlement or sign up to the controversial backstop, and then negotiate a separate trade agreement. “The UK will be more affected than the EU because a managed or negotiated no-deal does not exist, any more so than a transition period for a no-deal,” Mr Juncker told MEPs.

[thoughtlessarse]

Opinion: The ‘stupid English’ are blindly driving Northern Ireland towards conflict

A return to violence is not a worst-case scenario but an inevitability if a hard border returns, as it will if there is a full Brexit

I was sitting in a cafe on the Falls Road in heavily nationalist West Belfast when a local radio reporter came in looking for residents to interview about the effect of Brexit on Northern Ireland. She said that the impact was already massive, adding: “Stupid, stupid English for getting us into this pickle. We were doing nicely and then they surpassed themselves [in stupidity].” It does not take long talking to people in Northern Ireland to understand that almost everything said by politicians and commentators in London about the “backstop” is based on a dangerous degree of ignorance and wishful thinking about the real political situation on the ground here. Given how central this issue is to the future of the UK, it is extraordinary how it is debated with only minimal knowledge of the real forces involved.

This is hardly surprising when top Tories admit they haven’t even read the Good Friday Agreement and Arlene Foster claims it is not “sacrosanct” and could be altered to accommodate Brexit.

[thoughtlessarse]

The backstop isn’t just about trade. Is that so hard to understand, Britain? | Dearbhail McDonald

People in Northern Ireland are being forced, once again, to choose sides, says Irish journalist Dearbhail McDonald

One of my earliest childhood memories is of a circling red light motioning cars to stop near the border, silencing all who encountered its fiery glare. That red light filled my young heart with fear. I didn’t know if the gloved hand holding the torch was that of the RUC, the British army, the IRA or the UVF. I grew up during the Troubles in the shadow of Cloghogue, one of the largest British army bases in Northern Ireland. Having to make detours to avoid customs and security checks along “bomb alley” – an atrocity-laden eight-mile stretch of road between Newry and Dundalk – was as frightening as it was familiar. It still is: to this day there are some back roads in South Armagh that I will not drive on alone after dark. It’s hard to explain to those who have not lived through a conflict that claimed more than 3,500 lives, in a region with a smaller population than most large UK cities, how the border permeated every aspect of our lives.