The day of the bastards.

Hands up who remembers John Major? Over twenty years ago he was being hounded by the Eurosceptic wing that Margaret Thatcher had bequeathed him.  He was overheard at a briefing referring to them as “Bastards”. The eurosceptics were exemplified by Norman Tebbitt whose famous reminder to anyone looking for work was to get on their bike.  Lots of Irish took that advice and came to Britain.  

Well the bastards are now in the driving seat and it's on your bike time again. Top of the list is David Cameron. So let’s look at how Ireland has changed since the bastards were undermining the then Tory leader.  There is a fiction that free movement of people and trade originated as a result of the Good Friday Agreement. That’s wrong.  So lets nail this myth that it was always easy to cross from North to South.

I’ve spent most of my life crossing the border, I spent 2 really happy years working for a cross border body during the Northern Troubles. I crossed the border practically everyday in that period.  Free movement across the border was hugely curtailed during the troubles. Before the troubles you stopped at each custom post and explained where you were going before a customs man decided whether or not he'd search the car.

During the troubles, northern custom posts were bombed by the IRA and then replaced with military checkpoints on main roads.  Smaller country roads had bridges blocked and closed where they crossed from North to South.  The suggestion that a common travel area existed simply meant that no passport was asked for. Despite it not being the law at the time to carry a driver’s license, if you were stopped at a military checkpoint you were always asked for your drivers license. And there were huge delays getting through checkpoints.  As you drove north from Dundalk there was a constant line of trucks at custom clearance.  There was a cottage industry of cafes feeding truck drivers while they waited for the paper work to be completed.
And then there was the Prevention of Terrorism Act, brought in after the Birmingham Pub bombs.  As a student I was always singled out to fill in the form when I arrived of a boat in Wales before I could continue onward.

Masstricht provided for free movement of goods and the removal of custom posts along the border.  That treaty came into effect in 1992. Britain is now opting out of that.  Doing business up north or over in Wales? Fill the flask, you’ll need a cuppa as you wait, the coffee shops are long closed. 

Smuggling was effectively a way of life for many along the border exploiting differences in prices north and south. A collapse in the value of sterling will attract shoppers north however shopping may be the least of our worries.  Everything from laundered diesel to rubbish, livestock to fire works have moved illicitly in the past over the frontier. Dubious characters are behind this.  Removing the economic border left them stumped.

What we should be concerned about into the future is the potential for people smuggling.  The Leave campaign says that free movement can be kept. The only border between the EU and the UK will run from Carlingford to Derry.  But when they say free movement, free movement for whom? Citizens of the Republic of Ireland? EU citizens? or all citizens?  Nobody has explained what that free movement means.  

Either side of the border you will find people keen to make money smuggling people to the UK.

We in Wexford remember only too well what that might involve.  Let’s hope I’m wrong 

So last night’s historic vote isn’t the overthrow of any establishment. It’s the return of the bastards.