The birth of Brexit

RECENTLY I heard a senior Irish politician ask the question, why Brexit?

Masses of working-class people, mainly in northern England, voted for Brexit. The why of it all was the policy of open borders.

This present political mess being the end result of that policy. The ordinary citizen saw open borders as a convenient way to traverse European countries for business and for pleasure. But then came the influx of millions of eastern Europeans almost overnight, people for whom the minimum wage was treasure.

A century of struggle for decent wages and standards gone in an instant. Trade unions stood on the sidelines as all of this developed.

What about the unemployed in Britain and Ireland?

As well as the effect on jobs and wages, the queues for housing and for hospital appointments were greatly impacted.

People in Britain will suffer from being out of the EU but so will the people of Ireland. Open borders was a European political cock-up of the highest order.

Harry Mulhern,