SuburbanFarmer wrote: ↑Wed Dec 19, 2018 1:43 pm
Montegriffo wrote: ↑Wed Dec 19, 2018 12:51 pm
SuburbanFarmer wrote: ↑Wed Dec 19, 2018 12:33 pm
Perhaps I’m not as uninformed as you assume.
So you are “responsible” for NI. Unless they’re your pets, then that is your territory. You own it. All your government has done is waffle and pretend it’s not theirs. That’s what’s creating your little dilemma.
If it’s yours, and you want to tax it at your own rates, then put up a border. Call it whatever you want, but it’s no longer a part of Ireland. You took it.
You're still not getting it.
We don't want a hard border and Ireland doesn't want a hard border.
The only people insisting on one are the EU.
You are asking us to go against our interests and the interests of Ireland to keep the organisation we are leaving happy.
You and NI don’t want a hard border, because then you’d both have to admit that NI is no longer a part of Ireland. Simple as that.
You may as well have named it New Wales. But you didn’t. Because you don’t want to admit that you took it. And they don’t want to admit that they left.
Btw, I admire your sleight of hand, using “the interests of Ireland” to mean “your interests in the half of that island that used to all be Ireland”.
I'm going to try one more time.
This time I'm going to type really slowly to see if that helps.
The part of Ireland which is no longer a part of Britain is the ROI.
The part which still is part of Britain (the UK to be accurate) is called Northern Ireland or Ulster.
NEITHER side wants a hard border because it contravenes the GFA (which both sides want to continue) and could lead to a resumption of the troubles.
The only people who want a hard border are the EU because they don't want a backdoor into the customs union.
The EU wants a hard border but Ireland (both parts) do not.
Now I ask again, how does the UK leave the EU if they can't have a soft border and also can't have a hard border?
The only plan so far acceptable to the EU is a fudge known as the backstop which is a temporary agreement to keep a soft border until a working plan to replace it can be agreed on. Unfortunately, this fudge is not acceptable to Britain, Ulster or the Republic of Ireland because it can't guarantee a soft border.
No one has a plan to replace the backstop because it is impossible to have both a hard border and a soft border at the same time.
There is no such thing as a ''Schrodinger's border''.
This is not just some Machiavellian plot to stay in the EU. It is an intractable problem that no-one has found a solution to in two and a half years of negotiations.
It was first brought up in this thread over a year ago
viewtopic.php?f=63&t=1287&start=280