Is this the point at which reality bites for Brexit?
Its the Northern Ireland Question which has caused the latest huge controversy because of it just cannot be reconciled within the contradictions of what Brexit is supposed to be.
Basically, a 'hard-Brexit' (which is our Government's preferred option) means leaving the Single Market and the Customs Union. This means hard borders, check-points and possibly tariffs between Britain and the EU.
This border has to go somewhere and the Government of the Republic of Ireland (which is still in the EU) do not want it to exist between themselves and Northern Ireland because a lot of trade takes place between the two so they got the EU to pressurise Thereasa May into saying that Northern Ireland (which is part of the UK) will have a frictionless border with the south. This means a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
Unfortunately for May and the Conservatives, their Government is propped up by a small hard-line Northern Ireland Party called the DUP, whose reason for existence is to fight to maintain the existing British status quo. They are basically the opposite of Sein Fein and there is no earthly way that they will accept any border between Northern Ireland and the UK. It would be like the UK saying that Northern Ireland is more Irish than British, so predictably enough they torpedoed a deal which would have these terms.
So Theresa May suffered two defeats on the same day to opposite sides. First, she surrendered to Ireland and the EU on the border issue. Then she surrendered to the DUP on her first surrender. FYI her recent election ran on the campaign slogan 'strong and stable'. Pressure is being put in the DUP and in IMO they are awful but then they are what they are and any strategy must account for that. May's strategy has accounted for nothing of anything.
An obvious answer to the problem would be to not have Brexit. That won't happen because people voted in the referendum so the s**t has to go down somehow. Another answer to the problem would be to have the whole of the UK stay in the Single Market and the Customs Union but the right of the Conservative Party cannot have that because they believe that this would be a sell-out.
On another note, Brexit is a huge threat to The Good Friday Agreement and the Northern Ireland Peace process.
If this all seems messy, complicated and ridiculous...well... it is. And this is just ONE issue with contradictions out of several.
Brexit was always an undeliverable fantasy. I have predicted that the Government could well fall in the coming months over this.
Basically, a 'hard-Brexit' (which is our Government's preferred option) means leaving the Single Market and the Customs Union. This means hard borders, check-points and possibly tariffs between Britain and the EU.
This border has to go somewhere and the Government of the Republic of Ireland (which is still in the EU) do not want it to exist between themselves and Northern Ireland because a lot of trade takes place between the two so they got the EU to pressurise Thereasa May into saying that Northern Ireland (which is part of the UK) will have a frictionless border with the south. This means a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
Unfortunately for May and the Conservatives, their Government is propped up by a small hard-line Northern Ireland Party called the DUP, whose reason for existence is to fight to maintain the existing British status quo. They are basically the opposite of Sein Fein and there is no earthly way that they will accept any border between Northern Ireland and the UK. It would be like the UK saying that Northern Ireland is more Irish than British, so predictably enough they torpedoed a deal which would have these terms.
So Theresa May suffered two defeats on the same day to opposite sides. First, she surrendered to Ireland and the EU on the border issue. Then she surrendered to the DUP on her first surrender. FYI her recent election ran on the campaign slogan 'strong and stable'. Pressure is being put in the DUP and in IMO they are awful but then they are what they are and any strategy must account for that. May's strategy has accounted for nothing of anything.
An obvious answer to the problem would be to not have Brexit. That won't happen because people voted in the referendum so the s**t has to go down somehow. Another answer to the problem would be to have the whole of the UK stay in the Single Market and the Customs Union but the right of the Conservative Party cannot have that because they believe that this would be a sell-out.
On another note, Brexit is a huge threat to The Good Friday Agreement and the Northern Ireland Peace process.
If this all seems messy, complicated and ridiculous...well... it is. And this is just ONE issue with contradictions out of several.
Brexit was always an undeliverable fantasy. I have predicted that the Government could well fall in the coming months over this.
41-45, M
