Thread by @kevinhorourke

These are just statements of the obvious and it is crucial that not only people from the EU26, but Irish politicians, tell the truth on this score.

independent.ie/business/brexi…

Otherwise people will get the impression - which the Brexiteers are pushing hard - that a hard border in the event of no deal will be something that nasty foreigners are doing to IRL.

Whereas in fact a hard border in such a scenario will only be the inevitable physical manifestation of the regulatory barriers created by the UK.

Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil, and above all Fine Gael, which is in government, have a responsibility not to play party politics with this one.

FG has to avoid giving the impression that it can somehow secure no hard border in the event of no deal. It can't.

That may be a bit embarrassing since the government has over-promised, but the alternative is much much worse -- since it will give intellectual succour to West Brexiteers who want IRL to follow the UK out of the EU and are every bit as mendacious as their UK colleagues.

And if HMG loses the plot completely, and there is no deal as a result, the opposition here has to accept that there is nothing that any Irish government could do to avoid a hard border short of quitting the EU. Which would be economic suicide for the country.

So we need all political parties in IRL to be responsible. And we need the Irish Independent and other newspapers to carry stories in which Irish politicians, not foreign ones, tell the truth about this issue.

And the truth is that without regulatory alignment (including tariffs and VAT) there will be a border. Which is why HMG will have to sign up to that alignment for NI if they are going to get any sort of a deal.

Because while a return to a hard border may in certain circumstances be inevitable, it will under no circumstances be acceptable.