11 May 2018

The Guardian: Customs union only way to prevent hard border in Ireland, says Major

Sir John Major has warned that a hard border in Ireland will be unavoidable unless Brexiters start to take on board the “collateral damage” that exiting the EU will cause in Northern Ireland.

He said that the words “customs union” had become “toxic” and that efforts to find an alternative solution to the border amounted to “limp promises”.

The Conservative former prime minister said that Brexiters needed to understand that unless the UK stays in a customs union and has regulatory alignment with the EU, checks will be required for food, animals and animal feed by law.

“If so, a physical border seems unavoidable,” he said. “And, since the border winds through over 300 miles of countryside, this may require a number of border posts to be erected.

“No doubt many goods can be cleared in some invisible, frictionless way – as yet unidentified – but not all. Some, such as animals and animal feed, which cross the border every hour of every day, will probably have to be examined for health and safety reasons in order to avoid infections and diseases.”

His comments in a speech at the Irish embassy in London on Thursday come weeks after he said the British people had “every right” to a second referendum arguing that voters were misled by campaigners.

Major warned that border checks had the potential to “divide communities that are now united” and provide “a focus for protests from fringe groups – either unionists or nationalists”.

He said politicians should be aware of the consequence of that and ask themselves if there were protests would the border need to be protected. “Would security be brought in?” If so, would that prompt “a downward spiral towards violence”?

“I don’t wish to overplay this but, at the very least, it increases the potential for conflict,” he added. [...]

Full article on The Guardian

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