A United Ireland

Subject: A United Ireland 

Sometimes one reaches an impasse without quite knowing how we got there. Looking back it's a bit like Groundhog Day where the groundhog retreats into it burrow if the conditions are not quite right.
The complexity of Brexit each day reveals the bureaucratic nature of this world where governance in virtually all its form is covered by a multiple interlocking agreements. It seems a far cry from the 'handshake' which formed the basis of agreeing to a contract between two principle interests and resting on mutual trust.
Listening to the former WTA head who was taking questions from a committee of parliamentarians trade negotiations are all a matter of leverage. The 'common cause' has been supplanted by "how can I screw the most out of an opponent" and of course size and power determine the outcome. The major blocks, the US, China, the EU are the main players and the crumbs which fall from their table are the scraps which small nations, such as the British struggle with.
As a nation made up actually of four nations, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland we are more susceptible to disharmony than most and this historically was at its most raw with the Irish and the war for their independence. Northern Ireland was like the runt child, a political necessity to quieten the powerful land owning segment within the English parliament, a mismatch of Protestant land owning interests set against a Catholic society who's faith was passed down from the early forays of St Patrick and his Gaelic Catholicism. "The Troubles", the most recent manifestation of the discord between the Irish Nationalists and the representatives of the 6 counties of Ulster and the link to England. Much blood and money was lavished in the cause but in many ways, the imperative of keeping a foothold on the island of Ireland from Westminsters point of view although historically important at the time now seems much less relevant.

Brexit has spotlighted the anomaly of the boarder between north and south, between the need to seek independence from Brussels and all that Brussels represents in the EU and its entrenched hold over the main body of Ireland in the south.

How is the boarder between the two parts to operate without greatly increasing the cost of shipping. How will the tariffs be accounted for if, as seem more and more likely the divorce between the UK and the EU becomes more acrimonious. Perhaps it is time for Northern Ireland to amalgamate with the Oireachtas, to unite as a whole on what is relatively a small island and stop the constant, seemingly petty discord.
Once upon a time, (settle back children and I will tell you a story) boarders and customs were common and part of the background story representing the nation state. The wait to display your passport and the lorries to have their papers stamped was a fact of life and we managed without to much inconvenience. The early manifestation of the EU was the ECSC (the European Coal and Steel Community) signed by 6 nations, its aim was closer industrial cooperation to prevent war on the continent, a forerunner to the EEC and its present format the EU. (The continual thrust towards Federalisation is what frightens the Brits the most).
Boarder and tariffs are an anathema to the global masters interfering with trade and profit but before we were cajoled into believing that a globalised economy was good for us we managed to trade independently with one another paying due cognisance to each other as independent nation states. If we wish to value ourselves as a community with individualistic foibles and not become some sort of economic profundity without form or face, then the delay at a border is a small price to pay.