Brexit will weaken NI's place in UK so stopping it is a bonus for unionism

Everything these days seems to focus on something called a ‘hard border’. We are told that there must not be a hard land border between the UK and the Irish Republic.

This would be disruptive of many existing linkages.

Moreover it would apparently risk undermining the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement, an agreement that has taken on an aura of almost holy writ. But undoubtedly it is fair to say that very few people (whether unionist or nationalist/republican) want such a border.

But to obtain this objective it increasingly looks like the only practical solution on the table is to insert a similarly hard border down the Irish Sea – in other words internally partition the UK.

Such a move would please nationalists and absolutely delight republicans. On the other hand such a set up would be totally unacceptable to unionists.

One way for both the Irish Sea and the Irish ‘hard’ land borders to be avoided is for the UK to remain in the customs union. But this would undermine one of the supposed benefits of Brexit, whereby the UK would be free to make trading agreements, unconstrained by EU rules.

All this points in one direction only – the whole Brexit process needs to be brought to a stop. This would undoubtedly lead to loss of face and deflated egos amongst the more dedicated Brexiteers, but it would unquestionably be the best outcome for Northern Ireland as an unambiguously integral part of the UK.

This being so, a big question arises: why does the DUP continue to support Brexit? Such a position is clearly not in the long-term interest of Northern Ireland.

Rather, the DUP should use its significant influence at Westminster to support the many other British politicians who are usually described as ‘Remainers’.

Otherwise, as suggested above, we could well end up with a hard border down the Irish Sea, something that would be a major step in distancing us from the rest of the UK.

Surely the DUP does not wish to go down in history as the party that supported a step that greatly weakened Northern Ireland’s position as an integral part of the UK?

Stopping Brexit could well have an additional bonus for unionism in that such a move could contribute significantly to regaining the support of many of those voters who, until the Brexit storm hit our shores, were prepared to support the existing constitutional position of Northern Ireland, but who currently have shifted to a more all-Ireland stance.

And one final thought. A retreat from Brexit would, for many of us, be hard to stomach in one respect – it would require us to ignore the EU arrogances of Michel Barnier on the one hand and the Irish republican arrogances of Simon Coveney on the other.

But this would be a very small price to pay!

Frederick Boal, Ballyclare