Stupidity putting NI peace at risk

EVEN by the debased standards of Brexit Britain, the UK Government’s handling of the Irish border question has been breathtakingly stupid.

In Scotland, we think the Tories are giving us the rubber ear.

But at every step of the negotiations, they have shown callous disregard for the Northern Irish economy, the peace process and the views of the majority of people in the province who voted to remain.

It’s not like the Brexiteers hadn’t been warned of the dangers.

From the very start of the referendum campaign, they were told leaving the EU would destabilise Northern Ireland and threaten the Good Friday agreement.

The EU played a key role in securing the peace process and their institutions are still vital in allowing both identities in Ulster to live comfortably together today.

Unfortunately, the Brexiteers ignored those warnings – and now the chickens are coming home to roost.

The crucial stumbling block is how to maintain free movement between the north and south of Ireland when it becomes a land border between the UK and the EU.

A draft legal agreement published by Brussels yesterday proposes a “common regulatory area” on the island of Ireland after Brexit, if other solutions cannot be found.

This would move the hard border to the Irish Sea. Customs checks would likely be required on the Larne to Stranraer ferry but could be avoided on the road from Belfast to Dublin.

This prospect predictably infuriated the hardliners in the DUP. And Theresa May – who relies on those Ulster unionists for her parliamentary majority – insisted no prime minister would sign up to it.

The Tories almost seem offended that the EU have an organised team of competent politicians pursuing an efficient response to the UK’s planned departure.

But it’s hardly Brussels’ fault Britain is governed by a bunch of deluded clowns who couldn’t negotiate a good deal on their home broadband.

As we approach the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement, it’s tragic to watch right-wingers undermining it with such incompetence, indifference and dogmatism.

Arch-Brexiteer Michael Gove once infamously branded the treaty a “mortal stain” and compared Tony Blair’s pursuit of peace to the appeasement of the Nazis in the 30s.

Yet he has been far from the worst offender when it comes to incendiary comments – that dubious distinction undoubtedly goes to Boris Johnson, who somehow thinks it’s OK to compare the Irish border issue with the congestion charge in London.

With such an unspeakable buffoon as Foreign Secretary, it’s been left to Tory grandees like John Major and Ken Clarke to inject some logic into the Brexit debate.

As Major, who played a key role in Northern Ireland, pointed out, the facts are actually very simple. The UK can either keep an open border in Ireland or it can leave the EU customs union and single market.

The serious dangers now facing Northern Ireland are the inevitable consequence of UK Government policy.

Theresa May cannot allow the hard-won peace to be sacrificed on the altar of Brexit.