If you ever go across the sea to Ireland

If one of the pretenders to 10 Downing St turned up in Wexford, you’d expect that it would be newsworthy, wouldn’t you? You’d think that it would be up there in our media if not page 1 nationally well at least mentioned in dispatches?

In politics, they say timing is everything so perhaps it’s not silly enough for the silly season, but last week we had a visit from Stephen Crabb MP, one time challenger to Theresa May and former UK Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. Last week he traveled to Rosslare Europort to meet with newly appointed Minister for State Michael D’arcy to discuss the future for West Wales and the South East Ireland post Brexit. Mr Crabb is MP for Pembrokeshire which contains Fishguard and Milford Haven, 2 hugely important ports with considerable links to Ireland.  As Britain lurches from shambles to catastrophe over their departure from the EU there is growing concern in West Wales at how trade and jobs will be impacted once Britain leaves in 18 months time.

One might have thought Mr Crabb would have understood better than most the need for timing in politics. You see Mr Crabb is one of the foremost campaigners for Brexit and one might have expected that he would have come here to see the possible impact before he threw his weight behind Farage, Gove and Johnson. Presumably it was his desire to get into No 10 that prioritised his personal ambition over that of his constituents.  Now in the wake of Tory infighting it’s very much a case of every man for himself and he has to be seen as fighting for his local interests.  The reality is that another election in the UK could see the Tories beaten out the door.

And that’s why he set sail from Fishguard last week, following in the grand maritime tradition of Cook, Nelson and Drake. Exploring foreign lands beyond the Tuskar Triangle to see what trinkets he could bring home to astonish the natives. His foreign frolics feature in the Welsh media this week. The concern in Fishguard and Pembroke is that a return of a hard border will see less Irish trucks using the land bridge to Europe given the departure of Britain from the customs union.  The increase in inflation, the strength of the pound and drop in growth forecast for the UK economy into 2018 suggest that personal taxes will increase leaving less to spend. That will mean a reduction in exports to the UK from Ireland but add to that the likely levies applied to Irish goods in Britain and vice versa it makes for grim times ahead both here and across the water.

For all his new found concern in his local economy, Crabb cares little about Wexford and the Irish economy nor for the wider social and economic consequences of Brexit.  Brexit simply sounded good at the time and as a concept explains perfectly how Tory men use narrow nationalism as a vehicle advancement.

During the week I went to see the movie Dunkirk.  Dunkirk was a national humiliation for Britain that fixed Britain’s resolve to undo the disaster of Dunkirk and to ensure the UK could have a role in Europe. In 1940 Britain didn’t know where and didn’t know when but it still knew it had a role to play.

I once had an Uncle, long deceased, who was rescued after 4 days from Dunkirk.  Uncle Monty returned home after World War 2 and stood for the Labour Party in a local election in his home town. Monty eventually became Mayor. As a teenager I remember once being in his home and reading his election literature. What struck me about his leaflet was how he said he’d lived all his life in the town except between 1939 and 1945 when he served his country. He didn’t have to add anything else. That generation understood a sense of wider communal duty to put your community ahead of yourself and serve because someday things can be better. Many in the present generation of UK politicians and indeed in Ireland espouse the exact opposite.

Which brings me back to Mr Crabb. Once firmly en route home to Wales, Minister D’arcy tweeted to him, a tweet which Mr Crabb in turn retweeted.  At some stage Minister D’arcy appears to have had second thoughts about his away day with the Welshman and he deleted his tweet.  

It was that sort of day in Rosslare.

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.