There is a simple truth that those who say there can be no border in Ireland have to recognise; it is that Brexit was all about erecting such borders! If they really want no border in Ireland, they have to abandon Brexit.
Brexit is all about erecting borders where none previously existed, and hardening and extending borders where they already existed. The core of the Brexit vote came from around 30% of the population who are bigots - not just on the question of nationalist bigotry and immigration, but as numerous surveys have shown also on questions such as homophobia, misogyny, climate change and so on. The idea that this hardcore could have been, or might still be assuaged, by the EU granting some further appeasement of their racist beliefs in relation to free movement, as some liberals and conservative social-democrats have suggested, is pure wishful thinking, and just another reflection of the fact that they are remote from the views of this section of society, that their middle class safe spaces keep them separated from, and oblivious to. It was illustrated by the actions of the more ignorant sections of that core, who, in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote, who could be found, accosting anyone with a darker skin, or a foreign sounding voice, and telling them "We've voted to leave, so it's time for you to go!"
However, some within that core might try to dress it up, and the Brexit vote has meant fewer of them now feel the need even to do that, their real concern is not over the numbers coming into the country, and so on, but is simply a fear, or a dislike of foreigners. It is the same sentiment I have heard many times, from such sections of society, who complained about the fact that foreigners smell, because of the food they eat, their unclean habits, their willingness to occupy dwellings on an overcrowded basis and so on. Those views, of course based not on facts - indeed usually held by people who do not live in communities where there are immigrants - are what constitutes bigotry, and it is what makes them all the more willing to accept all of the attendant ideas about immigrants taking away jobs, living off benefits, getting privileges, being the cause of housing shortages, hospital waiting lists, and so on. For these elements, Brexit is about erecting a border, to keep out all of these alien intruders, erecting a safe space around themselves, even though the reality is that, in doing so, they will merely make worse, all of the actual causes of the many problems that capitalism throws at them.
For all of the small businesses, the so called plethora of white van men, many of whom have fallen into the precarity of self-employment, because Tory austerity led to an erosion of properly paid, full-time employment, or those just above them, who scrape buy only because they are able to pay rubbish wages to a few employees, kept on poor conditions, and subsidised by in-work benefits, the desire to erect new borders amounts to nothing more than a desire to isolate themselves from competition from bigger, more efficient firms, and from the minimal protections for workers, consumers, and the environment that the EU provides, and which they hope a right-wing Tory government will sweep away for them.
The claims put forward by the Tories, and unfortunately by Labour, of wanting to simultaneously put themselves outside the borderless confines of the EU, and thereby erect new borders between the EU, and UK, so as to appease these bigoted views, in relation to immigrants, by ending free movement, whilst also having free access to the single market of the EU, is simply a self-centred, arrogant desire to have cherry cake, and eat it.
In Ireland, that becomes abundantly clear. Theresa May is trying to frame the choice as between a bad deal and no deal. Whether that bad deal is her Chequers Plan, which she seems to no longer mention, because it's clear she does not even have support for it amongst her Cabinet, let alone Tory MP's, or the EU, or is something even worse, such as some Canada style free trade agreement, the result will be additional borders, additional restrictions, and a contradiction with the requirements of the Good Friday Agreement in relation to the Irish border. The truth is that MP's can refuse to allow May, and the Brextremists to make any parliamentary vote such a binary choice, but as I wrote recently, if backed into a corner, they should vote for No Deal, rather than a bad deal, making clear why they had been forced to do so, and that responsibility for that rests entirely with May's government.
Similarly, May and the Brextremists are saying they do not want a border in Ireland. But all of their proposals ensure that such a border has to exist. On the one hand, they refuse to agree to staying inside the Customs Union and Single Market, on the other, they object to the idea of a border between Ireland and the UK mainland. They claim that this is because they cannot accept the idea of Northern Ireland being separated from the rest of the UK, because that would amount to a break-up of the UK. In fact, the logic of the Tories, and DUP stance is to ensure a break-up of the UK. If they will not keep the whole of the UK in the Customs Union and Single Market, and they will not accept a separate settlement for Northern Ireland, to do so, then the only way there can be no border in Ireland, is for there to be a United Ireland. That would mean not just a temporary, and partial separation of Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, but a permanent separation.
The Brextremists say, in the event of a No Deal Brexit, Britain would not erect a border between the North and the Republic, thereby daring the EU to erect such a border. That is typical of the way the Brextremists have tried to use Northern Ireland as a trojan horse in their negotiations over Brexit from the start. (It is also typical of the way they have tried to claim that it is up to the EU to find ways of getting them out of the contradictions that Brexit has thrown up, in general, rather than accepting responsibility for those contradictions themselves. The truth is, as I wrote, recently, that a no border, in Ireland, in the event of a No Deal, would directly contradict one of the main reasons the Brextremists had, which is to stop immigration. The lack of a border, would simply mean that unlimited numbers of EU citizens could just use Ireland as a gateway into the UK, using the Common Travel Area as their conduit.
The Tories and Brextremists think that by posing the question in this threatening tone, they place responsibility on others to resolve their dilemma. The truth is that a sizeable majority in Northern Ireland voted for Remain. The unionist parties in Northern Ireland are now in a minority, in relation to the nationalist and republican parties. There is no basis for the DUP being able to hold the people of Northern Ireland to ransom, with their bigoted views, and minority position, in relation to Brexit, let alone being able to hold the rest of the UK to ransom. If the Tories and Brextremists push through a No Deal Brexit, the next step is obvious, in Ireland. It is for the convening, in short order, of a border poll. A recent survey showed a majority in Northern Ireland in favour of such a border poll, if a hard Brexit is pushed through. That would be the obvious solution. It would resolve the question of the Irish border, by removing it entirely by the creation of a United Ireland. That would leave the rump of the UK to go their own way, and under such conditions, its likely that Scotland would also demand a second independence referendum, in order also to remain inside the EU.
For a unionist party, the Tories are doing everything they can to break apart the United Kingdom, in order merely to deal with the internal Tory party squabbles of Europe.
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