Northern Ireland fought a long, hard and bloody battle to remain part of the UK. In that, it has succeeded. But in the referendum it voted to remain in the EU; it had benefited greatly from EU subsidies (paid for by the UK). No doubt it expected to remain in the EU as part of the UK; after all, it had been assured that the Remain camp would win.
But it lost. Which leaves the province in something of a quandary. The border between north and south in Ireland will be the UK’s only land border. Eire (the republic) is not a member of Schengen but it could become a back door for entry into the UK for those dreaded 500 million EU passport-holders. So the border, which currently allows free passage, may need to be reinstated. Depending on the result of EU negotiations, it may even need to become a customs border.
It has never been easy to control, even under the wartime conditions of ‘The Troubles’ (we were not allowed to call it a war, because it was inside the UK).
Roughly 200 roads cross the border, which means that they are virtually impossible to staff. There are even cases where the border runs through a single house - so one room is in the republic, the other in the province. Or the house is in one country while its garden is in another.
A better solution would be for Eire to follow Britain, by far its greatest trading partner, and vote to leave
One solution (proposed in Eire) is for the whole of Ireland (the island of Ireland) to become one country. But the Protestant northerners are adamant that they will not be ruled over by the Catholic south, which the fundamentalists consider to equate to “rule by Rome”.
But since, realistically, it would be their only option, they will be forced to follow the 52 per cent decision of the entire UK - even though 56 per cent of them voted against it.
A better solution would be for Eire to follow Britain, by far its greatest trading partner, and vote to leave. That would end the problem totally.
Scotland, meanwhile, had recently voted in a referendum to remain part of the UK. It follows, therefore, that it has to follow what the UK (as an entirety) decides.
It can’t, reasonably, opt to stay, separately, within the EU. Nor can it even apply for membership, because it isn’t a country. It has already voted against becoming an independent state. Suppose it called for a second referendum. More than 60 per cent voted against Brexit - although many must also have assumed that they were voting to stay in the EU as part of the UK. They may lose it again.
But if the nationalists won it, and they broke away... they would presumably need yet another referendum to decide whether to join the EU. If they applied, they would be at the back of the queue. Meanwhile, they have no jobs, no UK subsidies, oil revenues are gone, many of the distilleries have been sold (mainly to Europe), and virtually no industry. They would have very little to offer the EU.
And they would have to adopt the euro, which would be interesting when they crossed the Tweed. And they’d need to have a customs and passport border, about 60 miles north of Hadrian’s Wall.
So while Northern Ireland doesn’t want a border, Scotland may eventually vote to have one.
None of this makes any sense. A deal has to be made to sort out the Irish situation (one would like to think that the EU already has a solution to propose). And the Scots have to accept what they have already voted for.
It is totally illogical for the United Kingdom to remain anything but united.
Revel Barker is an author and publisher and former Fleet Street reporter, columnist and editor.