Ireland central to Brexit, so why focus on Westminster?
The central issue to the Brexit debate is Northern Ireland (and subsequent disintegration of the UK). So why has public attention largely been focused on the debate in Westminster?
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson would have you believe that the failure to push through his Brexit bill comes from the opposition in the House of Commons. But he has caused his own failure.
The premiere says that his Brexit bill does not include customs checks along the border of Great Britain-Northern Ireland. But in fact it does.
On Wednesday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn pressed the Prime Minister to confirm whether checks would be in place for goods traveling between Northern Ireland and Great Britain under his deal.
“The United Kingdom is preserved whole and entire by these arrangements and indeed the whole of the UK will come out of the European Union customs union so we can do free trade deals together,” Boris Johnson replied. “There will be no checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain and there will be no tariffs between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.”
However, under his current bill, Northern Ireland would end up following EU customs rules, which creates the need for a trade barrier down the Irish Sea to monitor incoming and outgoing goods.
Unionist MPs branded the government’s approach to Northern Ireland in the Brexit talks as “despicable” and a “betrayal”.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) furthered that Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal may open a path for Northern Ireland to join into a united Ireland.
The DUP said it would be disgraceful to expect any business to complete paperwork for goods being sold in “our country, not a foreign country”.
This is while a Sinn Fein official said that the government’s struggle with Brexit may lead to a referendum on a united Ireland within five years – opening a way for the disintegration of the UK itself.
The prospect of Northern Ireland leaving the UK, possibly followed by Scotland and Wales, may come to fruition as separatists take their cue from isolationist Brexiteers who are seeing their own dream of breaking away from the European Union come into reality. Such a scenario would be a profound conclusion.
But public attention has focused on the immediate spectacle in Westminster. The Prime Minister is trying to fast track his version of Brexit through the Commons in an attempt to bypass parliamentary examination of the withdrawal agreement.
Mr. Johnson’s push to call Brexit his own without the checks from parliament may echo back to the United Kingdom one day when Ireland, Scotland and Wales hold a referendum of their own.
Remo Newton, Political Commentator
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