: FW: Birth pains.
One of the strangest things about the headlines regarding Brexit is their lack of consistency.
Today we are assailed with the news that their will be queues a mile long at the Eurostar terminal due to the need to pass through customs checks. On the other hand the concept of having a boarder at all between Ireland and Northern Ireland is apparently an anathema. Apparently we fear sectarian violence if a boarder has to be erected.
Project fear, the need to paint lurid pictures of the consequences of leaving the EU seems to base itself on the fact that there was no life either before the EU and certainly not if we leave.
Everything we do in life has consequences sometimes good sometimes bad. One hopes for instance that the criminal will not commit his criminal act because he considers the effect on his life of being thrown in jail. People who break the speed limit or fail to register their vehicle do so on an assumption that they won't get caught. The flip side of the consequences game is when the consequences turn out better than what we thought and sadly there are many faint hearts who miss out by being over cautious.
The outcome of Brexit is as yet untested but the more I see of Jean Claude Juncker or Michel Barnier I see unfettered power, unelected bureaucratic power, the worst sort of power the sort that binds itself to a rule based system as a protection against the evolution of another way of doing things. Perhaps it was necessarily so to bind and secure the European project, a collection of so many disparate nations but ours was always a hesitant, lukewarm association and as the Union turns to Federation we feel the claustrophobic hand of the Commission more than others.
Anyway as we teeter towards the end of our negotiations and the prospect of a 'no deal' exit looms ever larger the images of a change in our travel and trade arrangements is thrust forward to frighten us.
The problem/advantage of being older is that one remembers the world as it was before.
Most people in the world have the inconvenience of queuing at passport and customs control. They make programs for TV as to the intricacies of entering Australia. Suitcases were always examined for contraband and embarrassment caused as the contents of your rucksack with three weeks dirty washing was revealed to all and sundry.
It shouldn't be beyond the whit of man to devise methods of minimising delay and the vision of lorries stretching for miles awaiting to be processed will only happen if we let it happen. Tariffs work both ways and have always been a tool in the box of exchange control. Much depends on the willingness to address these problems after we have left and yes there will be losers but given that the Market wants the things on offer it will accommodate to get them.
The Irish Back Stop is a threat but a threat based on the inflammatory nature of the Irish.
The fear that Paddy will unearth his guns and exploit the situation is preposterous. If the Good Friday Peace Treaty is so flaky that it takes a customs boarder check to ignite the parties into violence then there is no substance to the arrangement in the first place and perhaps reunification is the only way letting the Irish find their own way to come to terms with each other. Those who can't stomach the thought of reunification can return to England from where their great great grand fathers came. Perhaps the English landowning families who encouraged the original exodus to look after their lands in Ireland, pillaged through the monarchs patronage, perhaps these landowners could set aside a small corner of their leafy estates to house them.
Fear is in all our hearts, fear of change, fear of making a new start but it is also an important constituent for involvement and rebirth.
The outcome of Brexit is as yet untested but the more I see of Jean Claude Juncker or Michel Barnier I see unfettered power, unelected bureaucratic power, the worst sort of power the sort that binds itself to a rule based system as a protection against the evolution of another way of doing things. Perhaps it was necessarily so to bind and secure the European project, a collection of so many disparate nations but ours was always a hesitant, lukewarm association and as the Union turns to Federation we feel the claustrophobic hand of the Commission more than others.
Anyway as we teeter towards the end of our negotiations and the prospect of a 'no deal' exit looms ever larger the images of a change in our travel and trade arrangements is thrust forward to frighten us.
The problem/advantage of being older is that one remembers the world as it was before.
Most people in the world have the inconvenience of queuing at passport and customs control. They make programs for TV as to the intricacies of entering Australia. Suitcases were always examined for contraband and embarrassment caused as the contents of your rucksack with three weeks dirty washing was revealed to all and sundry.
It shouldn't be beyond the whit of man to devise methods of minimising delay and the vision of lorries stretching for miles awaiting to be processed will only happen if we let it happen. Tariffs work both ways and have always been a tool in the box of exchange control. Much depends on the willingness to address these problems after we have left and yes there will be losers but given that the Market wants the things on offer it will accommodate to get them.
The Irish Back Stop is a threat but a threat based on the inflammatory nature of the Irish.
The fear that Paddy will unearth his guns and exploit the situation is preposterous. If the Good Friday Peace Treaty is so flaky that it takes a customs boarder check to ignite the parties into violence then there is no substance to the arrangement in the first place and perhaps reunification is the only way letting the Irish find their own way to come to terms with each other. Those who can't stomach the thought of reunification can return to England from where their great great grand fathers came. Perhaps the English landowning families who encouraged the original exodus to look after their lands in Ireland, pillaged through the monarchs patronage, perhaps these landowners could set aside a small corner of their leafy estates to house them.
Fear is in all our hearts, fear of change, fear of making a new start but it is also an important constituent for involvement and rebirth.
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