The new Irish Sea border is worse than the sum of its various individual problems

Edwin Poots claimed yesterday that if the initial Brexit Irish Sea arrangements are not extended from their three month grace period, suppliers will to be able to supply hospitals and schools with enough food.

Health and education officials have denied those claims.

But the allegations are in some respects beside the point.

Justified alarmism, followed by misleading calls for specific solutions to limited problems, has already become a common feature of the new Brexit dispensation in Northern Ireland. What happens is that it becomes clear that the major new trade barrier between Northern Ireland and its most important trade link, Great Britain, is causing a major headache in one particular sphere or another. Then there is a clamour for that particular problem to be alleviated.

The schools and hospitals will have food later this year. That is for sure, in the same way that supermarkets will continue to have plenty of stock, even though many of the shelves are empty. But easy trading is over because NI has been ejected from UK internal market by a Conservative and Unionist government, in a disastrous capitulation to the EU-Ireland.

Mr Poots’s department has helped to set up the resulting Irish Sea border.

It is an almost unbelievable state of affairs, detailed clearly by Lord Empey on these pages yesterday. That removal from the UK internal market is the fundamental problem.

Because trade is complex, and little understood by most people, the government has been able to pull the wool over the public’s eyes and talked nonsense about slight increases in sanitary checks.

Some unionists have hinted at NI getting the best of both worlds. No, we do not have the best of both worlds. We are largely on the EU side of UK-EU trading arrangements.

The only welcome development of recent days is the growing unanimity among unionists that Article 16 needs to be invoked, on the grounds of economic damage within the UK.

——— ———

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers — and consequently the revenue we receive — we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to newsletter.co.uk and enjoy unlimited access to the best Northern Ireland and UK news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Alistair Bushe

Editor