When Theresa May visited the Taoiseach in Dublin earlier this month, she did so with Westminster inching towards a Brexit consensus for the first time. Nevertheless, the Labour Party leadership is finally offering to support Ms May’s Brexit deal, in what Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell describes as a “very British compromise”. Other than the builders of border posts, I know of no sector of the Irish economy in favour of a hard border. Even service industries like my own which doesn’t ship physical goods across the border would be hurt by the trade friction created by border checks, not to mention the danger that a hard border could unravel the Good Friday agreement. The backstop remains the best guarantee that Ireland will not turn back the clock to a hard border.

Source: Irish Examiner February 25, 2019 13:41 UTC