Jeux Sans Frontieres
With Operation Banner - the army's security presence in NI - due to formally end next week, anyone who has crossed the border recently knows it's a "blink and you miss it" experience. A few years back I filmed a section of a Spotlight film on one of the Donegal crossing points with a householder worried about the proximity of a checkpoint which was an obvious target for the IRA. Going through the same route last week I had to point out to the kids the tell tale signs that we were now in another jurisdiction (the yellow lines on the road).
Of course this is all in line with the theory behind the political process of blurring the border - making it seem increasingly irrelevant. I was interested then when Gordon Brown promised a new uniformed border force which, according to the Times, will "electronically screen every person who leaves or enters Britain". I can't see that happening on the Letterkenny road.
But if it applies only to airports and seaports and not to the only land border the UK has will that make a mockery of the supposedly tighter regime? Alternatively will NI passengers travelling to GB ports and airports be subjected to tighter screening than other UK citizens travelling within the country ( as we know some UK regional airports already operate a questionable policy on this score)?
Keen to learn more, I've asked the government to let me know how the new border force will deal with the border that isn't supposed to matter any more. A day has gone by with no answer, but I shall keep you posted when I get one.
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The blurring of the border is key to maintaining peace. Any attempt to reinstate thick walls between the north and the south will inflame nationalist sensibilities and could lead to a return to violence.
However, the reality of all this is that it is Ireland that suffers the burden of British paranoia. Surely Ireland would have signed up to the Schengen Agreement years ago had it not been for the need to share a common travel area with the UK. Similarly, through the EU other countries are forced to share Britain's ridiculous and arbitrary airport security guidelines. Taking that into account, you can see why the Letterkenny Rd is of little consequence to Mr Brown.
Anyway, Mark - you know that as far as the Westminster government thinks, the only border that matters is the sea around Great Britain.
Very relevant question Mark - esp in light of the fact that your colleagues have a Romanian Child Trader on film taking about the ease of the Cherbourg - Rosslare point of entry. One must assume that the children are then brought into GB via NI.
Perhaps Brown's people have done more thinking on this than we are given them credit for. After all Brown did put security co-operation firmly on the agenda of the BIC.
Ultimately given the Common Travel Area and the close links between the two countires the Republic may well have to adopt similair border measures to UK
Absolutely right Bob. I recently placed a job ad in the local media and was surprised by the number of foreign nationals who applied that had worked in the south before quietly moving north.
Needless to say, proof of permission to be here wasn't forthcoming, never mind permission to work here.
On the second point about border control, the UK are either going to have to strengthen the land border, or the Republic is going to have to serve as an extension to the UK in order to protect the UK.
Like you Bob, my money is on the latter, which would make "British Isles" the best option (see A Meeting of the Atlantic Archipelago) and give the Republic a constitutional status similar to that of the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, never mind a Commonwealth nation.