Boris Johnson turns tables on Irish PM as he dispels the backstop myth
PUFFED-UP Leo Varadkar feels snubbed because Boris Johnson kept him waiting a week before phoning for their first chat about Brexit.
However, as far as Boris is concerned it will be the last time unless the Taoiseach scraps the deal-breaking Northern Ireland backstop.
The fallout has sent tremors from Dublin to Brussels and Berlin. EU chiefs may finally begin to understand Boris means business . . . their mega-billion-euro export business.
Britain WILL leave the European Union on October 31 “come what may” unless Brussels rips up Theresa May’s thrice-rejected Withdrawal Agreement and starts again.
Boris has exposed the backstop for what it is — a voodoo spell to bewitch and befuddle the feeble minded.
It was invented by Theresa May as a sneaky customs union which would continue to bind Britain to Brussels’ rules.
It was grabbed by Varadkar and EU negotiator Michel Barnier as a stick to beat the Brexiteers.
Without it, we would create a hard border between Ireland and the UK, damage the integrity of European trade and risk the fragile Northern Ireland peace process.
Within it, as Belgian officials boasted in a BBC film, we would surrender our sovereignty and be reduced to a third-rate “colony” outside the EU. Far from “taking back control”, we would have no say at all in the rules that govern Britain.
Now, like witchcraft exposed to bright sunlight, the backstop myth is fading like fog over the Irish Sea.
Keen to humiliate their old oppressors
New technology is the answer, tracking of goods by remote control right down to a smuggled packet of fags or a dodgy food product.
So why is Varadkar so stubborn? His aim is to use the Brexit fallout in his long-term goal of reuniting Northern Ireland with the Irish Republic and breaking up the United Kingdom.
His gamble has backfired with the sacking of Theresa May and the election of a Brexiteer PM and a united No Deal Cabinet.
Ireland would be the greatest casualty of a No Deal Brexit, with tens of thousands of lost jobs and a sharp cut in economic growth.
Britain is Ireland’s biggest trading partner. The bulk of Irish trade to Europe goes through British ports.
Polls show Irish voters, once keen to humiliate their old oppressor Britain, are losing faith in a leader who seems ready to gamble with their prosperity.
Even his cross-party support in the Irish parliament is beginning to crumble, with Fianna Fail MP Timmy Dooley accusing the Taoiseach of putting the economy in peril.
“The stand-off with our nearest neighbour is a direct result of Varadkar’s failure to engage in basic diplomacy over the last two years,” says Dooley.
“The government’s lack of experience and arrogance will hurt Ireland in the coming months.”
So the tables have turned. It is now Varadkar who is seen as risking a hard border with Northern Ireland. It’s the Taoiseach himself who is putting the Good Friday Agreement in peril.
And it is Varadkar who is gambling with EU trade and prosperity.
Will Chancellor Angela Merkel put Germany’s stricken car giants at risk to save this posturing creature?
The EU has shown flexibility before. For example, by allowing goods to cross the Green Line in the Republic of Cyprus.
EU chiefs, always flexible when forced, now admit that “alternative arrangements” might work after all, just as Brexiteers have argued from the start.
Instead of creating an artificial border down the Irish Sea and cutting off Northern Ireland from the UK, we can use tried and tested technology.
On his election as Tory leader, Boris Johnson — less often called BoJo these days, you’ll notice — compared the border problem with Apollo 11’s safe return from the moon landing 50 years ago. “If they could use hand-knitted computer code to make a frictionless re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere in 1969,” he said, “we can solve the problem of frictionless trade at the Northern Irish border.”
He’s right. Frictionless trade without customs posts operate smoothly on the borders of Canada and the US and between Sweden and Norway.
SWALLOW WHATEVER RULES DISHED OUT
The backstop, effectively slicing Northern Ireland off from the rest of the UK, was invented to block unauthorised goods crossing the border once Britain had left the EU.
Brussels, backed by noisy British Remainers, claimed it was vital to prevent smuggling and enforce EU regulations against goods such as chlorinated chicken.
In fact it is just another move to lock Britain indefinitely into EU rules under the supervision of the European courts — Brexit In Name Only. We would have to swallow whatever new rules were dished out by Brussels. Yet remote-control customs tech already operates smoothly here in Britain.
Vast quantities of goods from across the planet are shipped daily into the port of Felixstowe, in Suffolk, without a customs officer in sight. The freight is checked electronically before it leaves its “trusted origins”.
Emerging economies such as Brazil, hardly a beacon of free trade, is saving billions with state-of-the-art technology.
Shanker Singham, from the Prosperity UK Alternative Arrangements Commission, has just completed a months-long investigation into frictionless global trade. “While we agonise, other countries are moving rapidly towards seamless borders,” he says.
most read in opinion
“Track-and-trace technology already exists so that every packet of cigarettes has a unique barcode, allowing you to identify exactly what its route to market has been.
“This can be used to support food standard checks away from the border.”
So much for Irish smugglers and dodgy chicken.
- GOT a news story? RING us on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL [email protected]