Brexit – The Irish Backstop needs unsticking

30/09/2019

1099

Opinion

Brexit – The Irish Backstop needs unsticking

The idea behind the so called ‘Irish Backstop’ is great in theory but in practice is just another quagmire of regulations waiting to be swept away.

The theory being that if the UK leaves the EU and Eire remains then sub standard goods and foodstuffs could enter the EU via the unmanned border between north and southern Ireland.

This follows on insist Britain stays within the EU Customs Union for the foreseeable future.

Of course in practice the outcome is likely to be very different.

The EU’s boundaries are supposed to be a secure barrier to prevent illegal goods from entering, yet since Britain entered in 1974, each year an ever increasing tide of illicit narcotics have crossed the EU’s porous borders.

So many tonnes of illegal drugs have in fact flooded into the EU that a number of Police Forces are no longer trying to enforce them.

So as the authorities have failed to control the trade in illegal drugs, what success are the likely to have in banning fake designer goods?

But with the EU so large a land mass and with few internal barriers, there is nothing to prevent a factory hidden in darkest Transylvania from churning out, say, counterfeit handbags to flood up market Paris.

The fact is with modern travel goods more or less flow freely and unhindered by custom officials.

Indeed, ask any self respecting South American drugs baron if he has ever encountered any serious hindrance and he’s likely to shrug his shoulders.

If an average traveller has a 100 kg of luggage, then one million illegal immigrants are bringing the equivalent of 5,000 lorry loads of goods into the EU completely unregulated.

This, along with the lorry loads of illegal drugs arriving daily in the EU make border controls look pretty pointless.

With so many people travelling we need to adapt our ways of providing security for our population.

We do not need endless armies of civil servants to rule over us when we the citizens are more than capable of explaining safe shopping to our own children.

For instance the wisdom of buying new designer items from reputable retailers who offer a money back guarantee, and being wary of market stall traders who might not be there tomorrow.

The border between Northern Ireland and Eire can be safely left open for free passage of goods as VAT is levied at point of sale and not on route.

The Irish Backstop can therefore be safely disregarded.