‘Special EU status for north post-Brexit is common sense solution’

Bert Hamilton: I wish this was looked at in a purely logical, business sense, rather than in any political way. People prattle on about ‘the UK voted for it and we are part of the UK’ and ‘just accept the democratic vote’. If tomorrow the rest of the UK voted to expel Northern Ireland from their country, would you just accept it? From what I can see, the DUP are so obsessed with not being excluded from the UK in even the smallest way that they are willing to put the prosperity and well-being of the people of NI at risk. I’m no expert, but from people I’ve spoken to, if NI were to be given special status, it would be of great benefit to them. The leadership in NI need to be careful not to bite off their nose to spite their face.

Jacob Zijlstra: Because, by many, it is not even looked at in a political way, but an emotional one. The problem with that is that common sense, logic and knowledge are no hindrance for emotions.

AdrianCrockett: To stay in the customs union and avoid a hard border makes economic and political sense. Was speaking with an ex-chief economic adviser to Cabinet, now working in private sector, and he sees the border question as the real deal. He’s also not convinced Brexit is a done deal, as majority of May’s government don’t want it. Lots of twists still ahead, I think. Cormac Begley: Not to mention that the north currently has a special economic status within the UK anyway. The region is already economically stagnant due to partition. Ending European Union single market and customs union membership will just make things worse. Unfortunately, the DUP would rather gratify their ideological obsession with Britain than show either pragmatic thinking, or political leadership. Bert Hamilton: I don’t see how they can move away from Brexit now. It would be political suicide. However, I still wonder, when all the facts are on the table, if someone will take the Brexit campaign to court for using misleading ‘facts’ to influence the public vote. This could then be seized on to secure another referendum. I doubt any of the above will happen, though. I just hope someone can use sense to make the best of a bad situation.