Good old Var2 Apr 2019 21:13
The EU’s own chief Brexit negotiator has, they argued, demolished the shibboleth that technology and computer checks cannot be used to run the Irish border – and by extension opened the gateway to the Free Trade Agreement they crave.
The same technology that was discussed as ‘magical thinking’ is now going to be used to run the border in the event of a ‘no deal’, which ‘proves’ – Brexiteers contend – that the entire border issue was simply confected to force the UK to stay in a customs union.
Unfortunately this completely misunderstands what the EU is actually saying about the Northern Irish border and how it would run in the event of a ‘no deal’.
Today, for the first time, the Irish government has made clear that it cannot allow a no-deal Brexit to threaten its place in the EU single market. That means maintaining effective checks on, or reasonably near to, the Irish border with the UK.