Border question as we come ‘close to the end’

Three years ago, on November 26, 2017, the Independent newspaper ran an article with this headline: ‘Brexit: Remain in customs union and single market to solve border issue, Ireland’s European commissioner tells May’.

In that article it was reported that: “Mr Hogan, the EU’s agriculture commissioner, said Ireland would play tough to the end over the border issue, and said it was a

‘very simple fact’ that “if the UK or Northern Ireland remained in the EU customs union, or better still the single market, there would be no border issue”.

Well, we are now close to ‘the end’, supposedly, and the Withdrawal Agreement as renegotiated and finalised by Boris Johnson, and then duly approved by Parliament, has created such a muddle that it is not clear exactly how it relates to those impudent demands made by Mr Hogan.

But as to his threat that Ireland would

‘play tough to the end’, a recent report in the Irish News indicates that their resolution is now failing, with Foreign Minister Simon Coveney saying that there will be no checks on the Irish side of the border whether or not there is a trade deal.

And we know that no changes will be made on our side of the border without the consent of the Republic, and nor will we be undermining the Belfast Agreement, because that has already been enshrined in our law, Section 10 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.

The Irish government decided to exaggerate the ‘border issue ‘as a negotiating tactic, and our government under Theresa May was content to go along with that as a convenient pretext to satisfy the demands of the Confederation of British Industry under Carolyn Fairbairn.

Between them they have succeeded in creating needless confusion, tiresome delay, and also some animosity, when all that was needed was a new UK law to control goods exports across the land border into the Republic and ensure that they would comply with EU standards.

Dr D R COOPER Belmont Park Avenue

Maidenhead