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On the Johnson Brexit border plan... 1. This was probably designed to cause maximum outrage in Dublin and Brussels, which it has, because it essentially proposes to avoid a hard border by building a soft(ish) border. Once rejected will form part of blame game for lack of deal
There is currently bigger rift between UK and EU than perhaps ever under May. EU always wanted status quo, no checks, alignment to protect their market and GFA. But UK now wants checks and customs posts near border and does not believe this harms GFA. Totally opposed views
On the detail, checks away from the border are politically difficult because the border regions in Northern Ireland are nationalist and therefore border posts are not going to last very long, risk being ripped down. So you'd likely need security to guard the checkpoints
GPS tracking rather than barcode scanners at border would definitely remove trade friction but therein lies political friction. How would Nationalists feel about the British government monitoring them every time they cross border each day? They see it as state surveillance
For context, there is already quite severe tension between PSNI and nationalists in northern Ireland who say their cars are needlessly stopped and searched all the time. They say this gets worse each time the IRA attacks (which they have several times this year already)
The Brexiteer perspective on this is that the nationalists need to put up with the fact that Brexit means changes are coming that they won't like and they can't have status quo. And that as for customs post attacks, UK shouldn't change Brexit policy to avoid offending terrorists
And indeed that there are already different trade regimes between NI and ROI such as currency border (though all that is underpinned by EU single market and EU law). And cars are already being searched for smuggling. So some ask why those changes are OK and this one isn't.
Bottom line is, problems with Irish border go deeper than trade and also touch on identity and politics and that's where the really complicated stuff starts.
