Brexit : If UKs offer on the Border is unacceptable to Ireland it will be unacceptable to the EU

[OnDoutside]

Donald Tusk firmly supports Ireland in Brexit negotiations

The President of the European Council Donald Tusk has weighed his support firmly behind Ireland in the Brexit negotiations, saying if the United Kingdom’s offer on the Border “is unacceptable to Ireland it will be unacceptable to the EU”. Mr Tusk met Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Dublin on Friday ahead of next Monday’s deadline for British prime minister Theresa May to submit her Government’s final offer for the three issues in phase one of Brexit negotiations.

In a brief media appearance with Mr Varadkar after the meeting, Mr Tusk offered support for Ireland that was much more robust than anticipated. In effect, he said that the EU would give Ireland the right to effectively veto any offer on the Border that is being offered by Mrs May.

“We agreed today that before proposing guidelines on transition and future relations I will consult the Taoiseach on [whether or not] the UK offer is sufficient for the Irish Government. “Let me say very clearly if the UK offer is unacceptable for Ireland it will be unacceptable for the EU,” he said.

He said that such a strong position might be hard for British politicians to understand but the fact was that Ireland remained an EU member while the UK was leaving.

The newly appointed Tánaiste said that Brexit negotiations could not move on to second-phase discussions on the future EU-UK relations without assurances on the future of the Border and “a more creditable understanding of the parameters within which we are going to solve the Border issues in phase two.” “That is all we are asking for and that is why we raised issues like the need to avoid regulatory divergence between the two jurisdictions on the island if we are going to have north-south cooperation that functions in the future,” he told the media after speaking in a public interview at an event hosted by Facebook.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/donald-tusk-firmly-supports-ireland-in-brexit-negotiations-1.3312032

[Blue_Tires]

1. Poor Britain... If only someone tried to warn them what a nightmare this would be

But no.... Farage+Johnson had the whole nation believing that they could vote YES on Tuesday, get all the Brexit paperwork done by Thursday, and by Friday police would be rounding up the nonwhite immigrants for summary deportation....

[OnDoutside]

2. AND 350m a week extra to spend on the NHS ! That didn't make it past 24 hours of their win.

[gratuitous]

3. Brits got sold a bill of goods

The adopted Brexit by a narrow 52-48 margin, sold to them as a way to get rid of furriners and to reassert British sovereignty. (Sound like the xenophobic aspects of any recent elections you might remember in the United States in 2016? Many of the same characters figure in both the British and American campaigns.)

Britain is finding out that their gleeful tweaking of the EU's nose doesn't come without a price. The EU didn't want Britain to leave, but if the Brits were determined to do so, the EU couldn't stop them. Now, after Britain has flounced out the door with a hearty "So long, sucker!" they find that it's not quite so cut and dried. Details like the UK border with Ireland have to be worked out, and oddly enough, that question never quite came up during the Brexit campaign. Whether this was an oversight or by design is a question smarter people than me can answer.

The upshot of it all is that Britain is finding out that it doesn't have any leverage or bargaining power. Now they're waking up to the realization that Ireland (of all countries!) can make demands on them, and have the rest of the EU backing the Irish demands.

Whoops.

[ProudLib72]

4. Time and again conservatives prove they can't think ahead more than week or so

And I get the feeling that this border business is an excuse to gleefully tweak the Brit's nose in return. Yes, I know there is more to it than that, but I think Ireland must be having fun rubbing it in British faces. I know there must be a lot of jokes flying around the halls of the Dail.

[OnDoutside]

5. There's a certain amount of mirth at their predicament, but the real fear is the effect a Hard

Border would have. Over 3,000 people died in a 30 year period of violence, and no one wants to go back to that (at least one with any intelligence wants to).

[ProudLib72]

11. I doubt a hard border would turn into the next Falls Rd

I see this as economic violence. Sure, it could turn into something nasty, but I'm thinking along the lines of lawsuits and boycotts/protests.

Not to belittle the horrors of The Troubles in any way.

[OnDoutside]

12. Tell that to the Republicans in bandit country. They didn't want a

Ceasefire in the first place. There's no way an reimposed border, electronic or otherwise, will be accepted.

[ProudLib72]

14. Ok, what you are alluding to is another

Republican uprising based on imposing a border. I don't see a hard ("hardish" ) border ever being implemented, but I want to know what you seem to know about Republican holdouts. Do you think there are holdouts/new recruits who are as committed to violence and see this as an opportunity to call for unity again? I'm not trying to start an argument here. I just can't imagine it.

[BannonsLiver]

9. Sounds like Ireland can hold this up for as long as they want.

[gratuitous]

17. Undoubtedly a subject of mirth in Ireland

But the Irish concern about the border is real. I understand lots of people cross from Ireland to Northern Ireland and back for business, employment, commerce, and all the other reasons people go from one state to another. Now imagine having to line up every morning and every evening while a contingent of border crossing guards check people's passports just to go to work. Still want to go into the next town for groceries or to visit that pub?

If the Irish border remains soft, what do the folks who voted in favor of Brexit get out of the deal? They were upset enough about foreigners going in and out of the country to vote for Brexit; a soft Irish border doesn't serve their objective, and what if they get up in arms? How does that play out for the British government.

This is a very thorny issue that wasn't given any consideration beforehand. Solving this on the fly is going to be very difficult.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

10. I don't think anyone really believed it would happen

A British banker told me before the Brexit vote that the whole referendum was just David Cameron giving the fringe elements of the Conservative Party a "lazy handjob" and not to worry my pretty little American head about it, it would be impossible to unravel Britain from the EU.

When I last spoke to her in May she said something along the lines of the average Brexit voter isn't going to wake up until they realize what a British born prostitute looks like and fuck them all if she had to move to Germany because of this.

[OnDoutside]

13. My cousin is a top lawyer in London, and 4 of his top 6 clients

Have already moved to Paris, with a view to moving their financial organizations with them.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

16. The message from the top where I work is our future is in France

Fortunately I love Toulouse.

Brexit plus Corbynism, what could go wrong?

[OnDoutside]

18. I love le Sud Ouest too...was in Castres in Oct, Biarritz next April.

[AmericanActivist]

6. Sounds like Ireland is saying, not so fast eh nm

[OnDoutside]

7. There's too much at stake for us in Ireland to take the British Government at their word.

[AmericanActivist]

15. Agreed and historically theres reason to be

Skeptical

[BannonsLiver]

8. Damn, if thats not an example of revenge being a dish best served cold I dont know what is.

The revenge of the Irish. Centuries in the making.