By: Lewis Harrad
With less than a month now before the date in which the UK will leave the European Union, tensions are higher than ever. Recently elected Prime Minister Boris Johnson is adamant that he can deliver a Brexit that the UK can feel comfortable with. This comes after the recent suspension of Parliament and the problems with the Irish border.
The prorogation of Parliament was a bold move by Boris in his attempts to ensure that he could negotiate a successful Brexit deal without backlash from other parties and to let the timer on Brexit run out faster. It is the opinion of many MP’s that Boris is purposely “dragging out” this complicated deal in the hopes he can secure a No-Deal Brexit. This is further proved by the comment made by the Speaker of the House John Bercow where said it was "blindly obvious" Johnson was attempting to limit debate over Brexit with the move. The prorogation of parliament was repeatedly overturned by lawmakers with no luck – the House of Commons is set to open later this week (the 14th October).
The response from the PM was enough to cut his visit to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) short in order to deal with the huge backlash at his decision. He met MP’s the same day. In the meeting, Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, came under fire from Johnson, being wrongly accused of attempting to delay Brexit. This was countered with the comment of how Johnson should resign, and the deadline should be further extended to accommodate a new election.
Problems for the PM were also brewing elsewhere. As a result of the decision to call Brexit, the Irish border is at risk of becoming a crisis. The border today is a soft border and therefore trade and commuters are allowed freely between the two countries. This means that there is no real border force and no checkpoints. When this was established in 1998, Irish could hold both a British and Irish passport.
The problems that could arise as a result could become very reminiscent of the times when the IRA fought British and Northern Irish forces. Others have speculated that the result of a hard border could also greatly increase commute times for the 35,000 people that cross daily. Many businesses both sides of the border could see a reduction in trade and drops in profit as well – something neither country can lose.
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