So this is “Getting Brexit Done” is it? Where were the voices explaining about the Northern Ireland issue before Brexit?

On the Remain side, Theresa May, then Home Secretary, said it was “inconceivable” that there wouldn’t be any changes to border arrangements regarding security and checks if Brexit happened. The then Chancellor George Osborne also suggested there would have to be a hardening of the border after Brexit, reflecting that if the UK left the EU’s customs union then some sort of checks or controls would need to be introduced. Ex-political opponents and PMs Sir John Major and Tony Blair even made a rare joint intervention, visiting the peace bridge in Londonderry to stress the importance of the border issue.

On the Leave side, the then Northern Ireland Secretary, Theresa Villiers, who was a staunch supporter of leaving the EU, said that if Brexit happened, the UK would keep an open border with Ireland and described claims to the contrary as “scare tactics”. During a visit to Northern Ireland in February 2016, Boris said Brexit would leave border arrangements “absolutely unchanged”. As did Nigel Farage when he spoke at an Ulster University debate on Brexit.

Basically all the Remain messages, went under the radar when it came to the national Brexit debate. They got drowned out because of the focus on money, immigration and that fact that we can all go back to having blue passports instead of those horrible burgundy ones, and now all its chickens are coming home to roost.

Elu

EU rebuffs UK demand to soften N. Ireland Brexit trade terms (Update 3)