The version of Brexit chosen by Boris Johnson and his acolytes is incompatible with the Belfast Agreement. I know that and have repeated it often. Most people know that. There are practical as well as political reasons why any kind of barrier to trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is unmanageable. There are businesses whose premises straddle the border agreed a hundred years ago. Not all of them are farms. A cow grazes a meadow in Northern Ireland but is milked in the Republic. Is the milk British or Irish? This problem was recognised by the UK’s … Continue reading What a #Brexit Mess

I’ll begin with a disclaimer. The author of the article to which I am about to link, though going by the name ‘Frank’, is not me. I wish I had his ability to construct an argument. He is in fact Frank Kennan, the owner of Roundwood House, a rescued Georgian home, now an upmarket hotel and restaurant a few miles from my home. Within the grounds Frank has established a library dedicated to “a general understanding of the development of civilisation and to celebrate those individuals who successfully climbed onto the shoulders of millions to give us something new and … Continue reading The Misappropriation of our Rights