I like reading Irish newspapers (the on line variety) at the moment since they're really the only English language media where you can find rational thinking on Brexit. The writers often come across as slightly smug and looking on while an overbearing friend is beaten up. It's a mixture of horror and a bit of schadenfreude, that they are perhaps getting what they deserve. Even the prospect of taking a few punches in the ensuing melee doesn't take the guilty pleasure out of it. So, it is with Chris John's in the Irish Times HERE.
He has some remarkably clear views, much less hedged around with the bias that you get with British commentators. Listen to this:
"Prominent Brexiteers are giving up the claim that leaving the EU will produce immediate economic benefits. Both foreign secretary Boris Johnson and former Ukip leader Nigel Farage are giving passable demonstrations of how to row backwards. Johnson has even muttered about how even a “meltdown” in the short term would somehow be worth some nebulous longer-term benefits".
And I think he hits the nail on the head with this:
"If there is to be no border on this island and no border down the middle of the Irish Sea then the UK has to remain within both the customs union and, most of all, the single market. That’s what those words mean. No matter how hard the British try, the words can’t be made to mean anything else".
I think he's right, the words cannot mean anything else. It also means something has to give if Brexit is going to happen in the way the government is proposing.
But the Brexiteers are so intent on leaving the EU regardless of the economic damage to this country, a bit of collateral damage to Ireland would be well worth it in their mind. If the choice was between the customs union and the single market or a hard border in Ireland and no trade deal with the EU, although it looks like a no-brainer, we shouldn't forget many Brexiteers have no brain and could well choose the latter.
