Exploding the myths of the Remoaners

ANYONE worried by scaremongering about a customs nightmare or a return to violence in Ireland after Brexit should study the despatch on these pages from Britain’s biggest container port. The few minutes it will take to read it should put even the most troubled mind at rest.

In his powerfully argued piece, Robert Hardman demolishes the Remoaner myths that withdrawing from the EU customs union will lead to insuperable problems at the Irish border or cause lorries to back up for miles at Channel ports.

At the Suffolk port of Felixstowe – which annually handles over 25 times more trade from all around the world than the £3billion crossing between Ireland’s north and south – customs clearance is so fully automated, using scanners, barcodes and computers, that delays are almost unheard of.

Indeed, 98 per cent of goods from outside the EU – and never forget, most of our trade is with the world beyond our 27 partners – pass through as smoothly as any from within the customs union.

The truth is there’s no earthly reason why similar technology can’t be adopted in Ireland, thus avoiding any need for the hard border Remoaners say will be inevitable when we leave the bloc.

Leave aside the contemptible alarmism of those such as Tony Blair and Lord Patten, who claim Brexit will undermine the Good Friday Agreement (which has almost nothing to do with the Irish border) and spark a revival of violence.

Forget there’s no appetite for a return to bloodshed on either side of the Irish divide – no matter how hard pro-Brussels fanatics strive to plant the idea in terrorists’ minds.

As Robert Hardman’s essay shows so clearly, the border question is a Brexit sideissue, easily solvable with modern technology and a little imagination. It has been wildly exaggerated by opportunists who will resort to any tactic – no matter how base – in their zeal to thwart the people’s will.