THE IRISH BORDER?

Graham Charles Lear
3 min readJan 31, 2019

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What's all this nonsense we are hearing from the EU about this issue.

The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic is a non issue. It is being used by the EU and by Remainer politicians purely as a political device to frustrate Brexit. It is also being used by the anti-British Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland for his own political ends

BRITISH GOVERNMENT BREXIT PAPER ‘FUTURE CUSTOMS ARRANGEMENTS’, AUG 2017

The UK is currently implementing a new Customs Declaration Service (CDS)… This is a high priority project within Government and HMRC is on track to deliver by January 2019. CDS will be compliant with the EU’s Union Customs Code to ensure continuity for business and will provide modern, digital customs technology, which will ensure HMRC has the flexibility needed to deal with the outcome of the negotiations with the EU. The UK has accepted electronic declarations since the 1990s, reducing the need for paperwork and streamlining processes for business. CDS will build on this track-record by accommodating new digital functionality, providing businesses engaged in international trade with a robust, modern and flexible declarations service capable of dealing with our future trade with the EU and the rest of the world.”

LARS KARLSSON, AUTHOR OF EU PARLIAMENT BREXIT BORDER/CUSTOMS REPORT, AND FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE WORLD CUSTOMS ORGANIZATION. SPEAKING TO THE EXITING THE EU COMMITTEE IN MAR 2018.

“There would not need to be any necessary infrastructure and not need to be either CCTV cameras or number plate readers.”

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2017/596828/IPOL_STU(2017)596828_EN.pdf

Question: “But the technology proposed in this report is untested, that’s correct isn’t it?” asked Joanna Cherry MP (SNP). “The proposal you’ve put here hasn’t actually been tested at any location anywhere in the world.”

Karlsson: “No that’s not correct. It actually has.”

It is a simple fact that proven solutions exist for the N.I. border. They do not require border posts, nor anything else that could remotely be described as being obtrusive. These solutions are agreed in principle by HMRC, by the Irish Revenue, and even by the special report commissioned by the EU Parliament in 2017.

It is also a simple fact that a border currently exists between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, despite the media talking as if it doesn’t exist. There are even CCTV cameras — as you might expect around any border anywhere in the world. This is because the Republic is a foreign country. Sinn Fein and the Republic’s government may not like that, but it’s a fact.

It’s also a fact that the UK government proposed a ‘maximum facilitation’ solution in August 2017, and has yet to have any detailed explanation from the Irish or from the EU of why this is unacceptable. The reason is that they can have no rational objections. It’s logical. All that is needed is for the two customs organizations on each side of the border to work out the details.

Instead, the EU prefers to weaponize the border issue and deliberately to inflame the smoldering tensions which still exist in the province.

And this is from an EU which constantly pretends it has been a peace advocate and broker for the last 40 odd years. Quite shameful behavior.

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Graham Charles Lear

What is life without a little controversy in it? Quite boring and sterile would be my answer.