What Happens With The Irish Border If We Leave With No Deal?

[ToraToraTora]

The whole border/ back stop etc malarkey has seen a lot of debate of late. Am I right in supposing that if we leave with no deal it stays as now anyway? OK the EUSSR may demand something from ROI but what can they realistically do when both UK and ROI are happy how it is now?

[jim360]

It's not surprising because common sense should have told everyone that it has to be so. Not everything is a European Union conspiracy. This is a matter of WTO regulations.

[jim360]

A matter of WTO regulations and just logical application of how Customs borders work, I should say.

In any case, this was always the consequence of No Deal, whatever the EU's intentions were -- and it is worth noting that, until recently, cassa was correct in saying that the EU were not calling for a Hard Border.

Nobody wants one, least of all the EU.

[naomi24]

Exciting, eh Jim.

[jim360]

Well, not quite the word I'd have used, but I suppose you could put it that way...

[ToraToraTora]

who's going to build that then?

[ToraToraTora]

that was to jim at 18:03

[Old_Geezer]

If tbey don't want one they're making a good job of appearing to want to force one.

[Old_Geezer]

THEY

No deal means no agreed deal covering everything, has been agreed. No reason why a temporary agreement to cover trade across the open border can't be struck, if the will is there. It wouldn't involve any of the UK being in the CU though, as it's been clear from the start that, that wouldn't be an exit from the EU, and each time it's suggested is clearly wreckers having a laugh. Folk are trying to give up before anything's started.

[Zacs-Master]

‘No deal means no agreed deal covering everything, has been agreed’

I don’t know what we’d do without you to clarify things, OG.

[jim360]

// who's going to build that [hard border] then? //

Who knows how things are going to work? At this point it's enough to realise that, absent a sensible and mutually-agreed deal, then there will *need* to be some sort of Hard Border to deal with the customs arrangements. The point is then not to build this, because nobody wants to, but to accept that this is a place we can end up if we're not careful.

"Project Fear", in as much as it was, was not a threat or even a promise, but a warning. As soon as people start paying attention to warnings then they can avoid the danger.

[naomi24]

//Who knows how things are going to work? //

You do - apparently.

[jim360]

Hmm. There's a difference between pointing out what will be necessary under a No Deal Brexit, and in explaining how it will be implemented. I don't know any details about the latter, most notably because it is almost certainly never going to be tested. But anyone who was listening should have seen the former coming a mile off.

[naomi24]

Jim, // I don't know any details about the latter, most notably because it is almost certainly never going to be tested.//

That isn’t why you don’t know. You don’t know because, in truth, you know about as much as the rest of us.