Wednesday 11 July 2018

Problems with the Chequers proposal.

Okay, as I see it, here's a big problem with Theresa may's  Chequers proposal on Brexit.

In order to continue with a seamless border with Southern ireland, she has proposed regulatory alignment with the EU on goods.

So I'll get onto the "Not Brexit" points of that stance later, but here's some detail around the Irish border issue.

In order for the issue of a seamless border with Ireland to work for goods, we also have to accept free movement of people. You can't have a non-border and then claim to control immigration.

Because if people from EU countries have freen movement from the EU mainland to Southern Ireland and there is no border between Northern and Southern Ireland, what is to stop an EU citizen walking across the border to the UK?

If regulatory alignment allows us to have no border between Southern Ireland and then there are no border checks between Northern Ireland and the UK mainland, then by default the border between us and Europe is open and there is free movement of people.

So that's one promise broken, there will be no control of borders and there will be free movement of people. It cannot be anything else unless there is a hard border in Ireland.

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