Back in 2017, LDV held a fringe meeting at the Bournemouth Conference where we talked about the areas that could be most harmed by Brexit – the Irish Border and Gibraltar. We heard that the manufacturing process for some products could involve crossing that border five times. You can just imagine the chaos Brexit brings to that process.
Today, Jo Swinson, who has barely had a break since being elected leader 3 weeks ago, headed to the Irish Border to hear from the people who would be amongst the worst affected by any Brexit.
She went one better than Boris Johnson who has never bothered himself to actually go and find out what havoc he is so cavalier about wreaking. Here is the interview she gave to BBC News.
Great to meet @StephenFarryMLA this morning on the Northern Ireland border – UK govt needs to start taking seriously how damaging a no deal Brexit will be to communities here. #StopBrexit pic.twitter.com/iSJrK9rO42
— Jo Swinson (@joswinson) August 12, 2019
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9 Comments
It is great to see an MP from outside Northern Ireland showing that she is willing to find out the real situation on the border. Well done!
My sense is that the Alliance could sweep up in Northern Ireland if they play their cards right. They should particularly target Sinn Fein seats and ask their supporters to back them to stop Brexit.
I think/hope you are right Christian. When people attempt to do the Parliamentary arithmetic they usually forget what would happen if the constituencies usually represented by Sinn Fein were to send MPs who were eager to work to prevent Brexit.
Sinn Fein are against Brexit but won’t actually do anything to stop it. Well they are far from unique in that, many politician’s are against the damage Brexit will do, but few actually intend to do anything about it; they just hope someone else will.
We need a lot more “Jo visits X stories”. Even if The National Media ignore them, Local Media will always cover them. Only 1 in 3 People know who Jo is, we should do everything to push that up.
If the eu is serious about retaining a free trade area within its borders, there seems to be no alternative to a border between N Ireland and Eire if we leave the eu unless the two merge. In that case the border does fall in the irish sea or at least at the ports on Western Britain. Any other construction will be open to smuggling of goods and people on an enormous scale and will not be credible in the long term unless we negotiate a free trade and customs area with the continent that some would interpret as not leaving.
Well done Jo for going to the border areas so soon after being elected Leader. It is only when you visit these areas that you can really understand the real impact of imposing a hard border on areas that have lived without it for 20 years.
I’m bemused by Christian, Fiona and Frankie’s comments. Whilst I can understand people’s frustration with Sinn Fein, even though abstention from Westminster has been their policy for over 100 years. Surely the real target should be the DUP? ( Lets not forget that Naomi Long was MP for East Belfast, and defeated the then DUP Leader).
If Alliance can win seats from the DUP that is a net gain of 2 for each seat won. The DUP have been propping up the Tories, insisted on dumping the sensible solution of keeping NI in the single market, and cherry pick their Unionism. They want to be the same as Great Britain as far as Brexit is concerned, but not for abortion law or equal marriage. These right wing bigoted dinosaurs need to lose and I believe Alliance can beat them, whereas I doubt they’ll win in the border areas which are more likely to be a Sinn Fein-SDLP-Unionist battle.
Irish consumer sentiment as crashed to a near five-year low amid growing fears that Britain will leave the European Union without an agreement. Fears that a no-deal Brexit could prompt an economic slump has made consumers more sensitive in recent weeks, according to the latest KBC Bank of Ireland/ESRI consumer sentiment index.
https://worldabcnews.com/ireland-hit-by-boris-blues-consumers-fear-looming-no-deal-brexit-world-news/
Peter Hirst 13th Aug ’19 – 1:29pm Not leaving would be the thing to do. Revoke Article 50.