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No to a Brexit border in the Irish Sea!

3,255 views · Published 6 March 2018 · 8:24 · Indexed 10 November 2026

Channel: Jeff Taylor · 2018 · News & Politics

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Strange that after all the negotiations to reach a joint report last year, the EU just ignores the contents anyway.

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The EU's response in their draft legal agreement to what was in the joint report issued last year shows two things.

The first is how dismissive of nation states the EU can be and secondly how institutionally submissive the UK has become in its dealings with the EU.

The EU does not care what is in the joint report, it does not have to because all the real onus in it has been placed squarely on the shoulders of the UK.

We are leaving the EU yes, but that does not mean that we have to make all the concessions. And that includes not rolling over to the EU annexation of Northern Ireland!

As far as I can see the only body that has undertaken to remain committed to the Good Friday Agreement and the avoidance of a hard border between North and South Ireland is the UK. Apart from recognition of the general situation, the EU appears to have made no such undertaking in the joint report. And now it is using that as a bargaining chip while the UK agrees to such things as 'unconditionally' supporting their defence with our forces.

The one-sided nature of it all just beggars belief!

The more you look at the joint report the more you get the feeling that it was drafted by supplicant Remain minded people with Remain firmly in mind!

That report does way more to protect the EU internal market and keeping the Republic of Ireland firmly within it than it does for the aims of an independent UK.

Arlene Foster, the leader of the DUP, said:

“The draft legal text produced last week is not a full and faithful representation. It is utterly unacceptable for Northern Ireland to be treated separately from the rest of the United Kingdom as set out in the draft EU legal text. We will never support any such concept and the EU need to realise such concepts will never be accepted and agreed by the UK.”

The truth is the EU is fully aware of how unacceptable to the DUP and UK this draft would be. But they have not signed up to those parts of it, only the UK has. And the proof of that is the very fact of the draft legal document itself.

But why is the UK so reticent in pushing its own advantages. A report in the Independent prior to the 2016 referendum pointed out that:

"Britain is far and away Ireland’s biggest trading partner, accounting for 50 per cent of exports from the Republic. Ireland is virtually entirely dependent upon its larger neighbour for energy, importing 90 per cent of its oil and more than 90 per cent of its gas from the UK."

And it said that the effect of Brexit on the Republic could be 'devastating'.

Also, looking at Northern Ireland trade you can see that £15 billion is done with the rest of the UK, £4 billion with the Republic of Ireland, just £3 billion with the rest of the EU and £5 billion with the rest of the world.

This puts the message out loud and clear that, where trade is concerned, the island of Ireland as a whole has more of a stake in a successful UK than it has in the European Union.

And now that the Republic of Ireland has also become a net contributor to the EU coffers for the first time since 1973, things could become interesting as decisions are made on which member states will find the extra cash to fill the EU Brexit budget gap.

After all, would you want to belong to a political club that was doing its level best to distance you from the one market place that you rely on in an almost exclusive way?

The UK needs to playing hard-ball with this far more than it has - especially as both the republic and the EU have proved they are quite happy to do so themselves.

At least the words "Under the caveat that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed ...." are in the joint report to give the UK a get out route to 'no deal', which may well be the end result anyway.

No to a Brexit border in the Irish Sea!

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