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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
|---|---|
| Post-Brexit Irish border conundrum deepens | Post-Brexit Irish border conundrum deepens |
| (5 days later) | |
| I have just come home from a troubled Ireland still strongly committed to the Good Friday agreement (aka the Belfast agreement) but uncertain about whether they will survive the Brexit negotiations and the uncertainties of the minority Conservative government’s stance. | I have just come home from a troubled Ireland still strongly committed to the Good Friday agreement (aka the Belfast agreement) but uncertain about whether they will survive the Brexit negotiations and the uncertainties of the minority Conservative government’s stance. |
| The government’s position on paper is good: clear, strongly committed to the existing agreements and supported in the Irish government’s priorities paper. But it offers October this year as the date to achieve an outline agreement. That sounds optimistic. Given suggestions that negotiations on Brexit may be suspended until after the German election, it seems hopelessly so. | The government’s position on paper is good: clear, strongly committed to the existing agreements and supported in the Irish government’s priorities paper. But it offers October this year as the date to achieve an outline agreement. That sounds optimistic. Given suggestions that negotiations on Brexit may be suspended until after the German election, it seems hopelessly so. |
| Already there are contentious ideas. Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Féin, has talked about a democratic decision on the unification of the two parts of Ireland – the Republic and the North – as being obtainable by a simple majority in a referendum. But the principle of consent is reiterated in all the joint agreements, and that principle is that there must be a majority in each part of Ireland for unification to be accepted. | Already there are contentious ideas. Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Féin, has talked about a democratic decision on the unification of the two parts of Ireland – the Republic and the North – as being obtainable by a simple majority in a referendum. But the principle of consent is reiterated in all the joint agreements, and that principle is that there must be a majority in each part of Ireland for unification to be accepted. |
| The new bone of contention is demonstrated in the leaked Home Office document about the proposal for a new immigration policy – and a very tough and harsh one – in a post-Brexit United Kingdom (Revealed: Tories’ Brexit plan to deter EU migrants from Britain, 6 September). | The new bone of contention is demonstrated in the leaked Home Office document about the proposal for a new immigration policy – and a very tough and harsh one – in a post-Brexit United Kingdom (Revealed: Tories’ Brexit plan to deter EU migrants from Britain, 6 September). |
| The prime minister should make it absolutely clear that she and her government reject the immigration proposals dreamed up in some xenophobic part of the Home Office and bring forward a policy that underpins the Good Friday agreement and honours the pledges made and agreed there.Shirley WilliamsHouse of Lords | The prime minister should make it absolutely clear that she and her government reject the immigration proposals dreamed up in some xenophobic part of the Home Office and bring forward a policy that underpins the Good Friday agreement and honours the pledges made and agreed there.Shirley WilliamsHouse of Lords |
| • Your leader states that David Davis “cannot imagine his way out of the facts”, yet the Northern Ireland post-Brexit border conundrum is more political than logistic (The border issue exposes deep flaws in UK Brexit thinking, 8 September). Northern Ireland voted by a large majority to remain in the EU, so an obvious solution is to leave the province as a de facto EU member while moving the EU’s hard border to the coast. The unionists, however, will never countenance such a border, which rules it out for a Tory government determined to survive at any cost.Tim Shelton-JonesBrighton, East Sussex | • Your leader states that David Davis “cannot imagine his way out of the facts”, yet the Northern Ireland post-Brexit border conundrum is more political than logistic (The border issue exposes deep flaws in UK Brexit thinking, 8 September). Northern Ireland voted by a large majority to remain in the EU, so an obvious solution is to leave the province as a de facto EU member while moving the EU’s hard border to the coast. The unionists, however, will never countenance such a border, which rules it out for a Tory government determined to survive at any cost.Tim Shelton-JonesBrighton, East Sussex |
| • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com | • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com |
| • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters | • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters |
| Brexit | Brexit |
| Northern Ireland | Northern Ireland |
| Ireland | Ireland |
| Gerry Adams | Gerry Adams |
| European Union | European Union |
| David Davis | David Davis |
| letters | letters |
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