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NI is a back door into the UK. This was clear from the first mention of Brexit and obviously the hard border issue raised its head then. The DUP fought under ‘keep us British’ not realising that the government would renege on its promises once the government didn’t require the DUPs votes. Now we are left in a place, betwixt and between, and the back door remains open.
Interestingly, it looks like the Irish Sea border will be on the mainland for immigration issues at the moment as people can’t travel from NI to the mainland without hindrance.
The fright difficulties may drive freight into the South from the mainland and onwards to the EU - time will tell if that is a workable solution.
TGR-
It'll be interesting to monitor that's for sure. I do recall seeing stories around NI companies picking up business from UK mainland companies due to NI having a foot in both sides at the moment. (Think this may have been linked upthread already: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-55942076).
The DUPs thought process is a bit baffling to me. The increased 'risk' of unification can't have been worth their pay-packet from the tories. Unless they genuinely did trust the tories to have their backs along the way, which once again seems incredibly naive.
mmccarthy
Oh don't get me wrong I'm not saying that the Unionist Brexit vote was driven by hardening the border. My point was that surely an NI resident Brexit voter would see that either a border would be required, otherwise NI would be a backdoor into the UK, meaning all them forrins would be passing through. If the options were hardening of the NI/ROI border, or a sea border. I'm guessing that hardening the NI/ROI border would be a nice bonus.
Would be interested to hear the opinions of those you've spoken with though. It's difficult to hear opinions from the 'other side' which aren't just angry sub-140 character rants online.