THE GUARDIAN: With its international reputation in tatters and businesses in despair, Britain has painted itself deeper into a corner
No one I know has a clue what the current row over last year’s Brexit withdrawal deal really means. All they see is another mess from a dysfunctional Downing Street.
One thing should be clear. The argument has nothing to do with the UK leaving the EU, which has already happened. It has to do with a different but related decision, Boris Johnson’s belief that the UK should also leave Europe’s single market, the lasting talisman of his “hard Brexit” bid to appear a macho Tory leader.
The UK leaving the single market had always carried a nightmare consequence, that of a hard border of some sort between northern and southern Ireland. Such a border would not just be near impossible to erect and unpopular across Ireland, it would be a gross breach of the 1998 Good Friday agreement, which pledged open trade. » | Simon Jenkins | Thursday, September 10, 2020
