N.Ireland border poll

[Colkitto]

Could N.Ireland beat Scotland in leaving the UK? 

[Cream Cheese]

No. But England could beat us both to it if Queen Nicola keeps taking her wee trolling trips down there.

[Alan Stubbs]

What would happen if Northern Ireland did actually bolt? Surely Ireland wouldn't actually want the North back at the moment. They'd be taking on a massive economic burden with security costs that were already massive before half the population lose their mind about an actual constitutional change.

[John Lambies Doos]

What would happen if Northern Ireland did actually bolt? Surely Ireland wouldn't actually want the North back at the moment. They'd be taking on a massive economic burden with security costs that were already massive before half the population lose their mind about an actual constitutional change.

Eire don't want it... 70% public service jobs, high unemployment and a baggage of sectarian pish. Won't happen anytime soon
Scotland will be first to go

[Colkitto]

[Colkitto]

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/taoiseach-tells-eu-to-prepare-for-prospect-of-northern-ireland-joining-with-the-republic-34894129.html

[Arsenal till I die]

Wouldn't the south have to change their constitution or something if they didn't want the North, before the North could vote to join?

[John Lambies Doos]

Wouldn't the south have to change their constitution or something if they didn't want the North, before the North could vote to join?

Under the good Friday agreement the south dropped their claim to the north

[LongTimeLurker]

...and it's left up to the NI Secretary of State to call the vote if conditions appear to be ripe for a yes, which isn't going to happen. Think Enda Kenny has his eye on the next election for the Dail with this more than anything else, but maybe also to the long term as well. Somewhat paradoxically it is FG that tend to be more keen on actually making concrete moves towards UI rather than FF, who are usually viewed as being the deeper shade of green ideologically, because an influx of a million Unionists and a significant number of SDLP voters would stop FF from being the natural party of government in the RoI.

[Vladimir Lennon]

The Republic would welcome the North back with open arms and rightly so - a beautiful part of the world, with a hard working, entrepreneurial population. But as far as I've seen, even most of the Catholic community aren't I'm favour of seceding from the Union, so can't see a referendum being very successful.

[RedRob72]

Sorry lads, it just ain't gonna happen.

[Granny Danger]

How much cross border activity is there by citizens of both countries?  The reason I ask is that I wonder if views will change when the reality of a physical border happens.

 

 

[LongTimeLurker]

The RoI are not part of Schengen so it may still be possible to keep the Common Travel Area intact. If you travel by road from Belfast to Dublin, it's difficult to tell where the border is, if you are not paying close attention to the way there suddenly is Gaelic in italics on the road signs and distances switch to kilometres. As long as the Brexit brigade don't get too lunatic during the exit negotiations and opt for something close to the EEA, sanity will probably prevail on keeping things that way.

[DublinMagyar]

The RoI are not part of Schengen so it may still be possible to keep the Common Travel Area intact. If you travel by road from Belfast to Dublin, it's difficult to tell where the border is, if you are not paying close attention to the way there suddenly is Gaelic in italics on the road signs and distances switch to kilometres. As long as the Brexit brigade don't get too lunatic during the exit negotiations and opt for something close to the EEA, sanity will probably prevail on keeping things that way.

Won't happen, both must be in EU or both out of EU.

[Ziggy]

3 hours ago, Granny Danger said:

How much cross border activity is there by citizens of both countries?  The reason I ask is that I wonder if views will change when the reality of a physical border happens.

 

 

BBC breakfast news had a report on this the other day.

Everyone in it was strongly against the thought of any border controls. Evoked negative memories of check points that ranged from terror to just plain annoyance at the inconvenience.

[THE KING]

I made this point before about NI, So much for Brexit means Brexit , NI is a special case and will have free movement n trade with ROI?!

The wishes of Scotland to stay in the EU can eat shit as we're part of the UK, but (uniost controlled) NI can carry on acting as if its part of a united Ireland?!

You couldn't make it up.

[LongTimeLurker]

11 hours ago, DublinMagyar said:

Won't happen, both must be in EU or both out of EU.

Like Sweden and Norway, who have an open border with only sporadic customs checks being enforced despite one being inside the EU while the other is outside?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway–Sweden_border

Since both the UK and RoI are outside Schengen and have no land border with other EU states, it should still be possible to avoid a hard border as long as the UK has a status similar to Norway and Switzerland in being in the single market but not the EU. The sticking point on this that could complicate matters will be the question of free movement of labour given immigration was a lot of what drove the pro-Brexit vote in England.

 

[John Lambies Doos]

Sorry lads, it just ain't gonna happen.

This

[DublinMagyar]

Like Sweden and Norway, who have an open border with only sporadic customs checks being enforced despite one being inside the EU while the other is outside?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway–Sweden_border

Since both the UK and RoI are outside Schengen and have no land border with other EU states, it should still be possible to avoid a hard border as long as the UK has a status similar to Norway and Switzerland in being in the single market but not the EU. The sticking point on this that could complicate matters will be the question of free movement of labour given immigration was a lot of what drove the pro-Brexit vote in England.

 

Apologies. I should have qualified that with .........unless the U.K. Is in EEA/EFTA.........which, as you say would allow for free movement of people. English voters won't allow that, Nigel would come back on his white charger. It's a fucking mess that logically leads to reunification as the answer. Problematic but still easier than getting brextiteers to see what they've done.

[LongTimeLurker]

Agree that last bit is the key, but not sure the Brexit vote is as solid as you imply. Clearly the UK does have to leave the EU, because Merkel and co's posture about no negotiations before invoking Article 50 is all about not setting dangerous precedents. I think Theresa May will drag out the negotiations so that there is a big enough shift of public opinion in middle England once reality sinks in to make an EEA type deal palatable enough to be viewed as the consensus way ahead by the non-UKIP parties. It was only a 53:47 split in England and a lot of it was driven by a protest vote similar to that in the RoI's Lisbon Treaty referendum, so that isn't mission impossible politically. No sure thing that strategy will work, though, so UI could wind up being very much on the agenda again in the years ahead complete with a rational set of arguments available to try to persuade Alliance Party type voters in constituencies like North Down that they really don't need to side with the fleggers in constitutional terms. Think the main problem for the pro-UI side is that people instinctively know that the 70% public service jobs referred to above is contingent upon the status quo arrangement, so I seriously doubt that UI could happen on a timeline of less than 20 years.