Brexit: Ireland Dismisses EU Border Plan, Refuses Talks With London

UK Prime Minister Ms. Theresa May can’t catch a break when it comes to Brexit apparently.

Having during the weekend tried to reassure the British public that she would get the best possible Brexit deal for the British isles and that the EU’s proposal of last week was ‘just a starting basis for negotiations’, the opposition is now coming from her own neighbour as Irish Prime Minister Mr. Leo Varadkar dismissed the UK’s proposal for a Canada-US style border between Ireland and Northern Ireland (which is what Ms. May had floated in Parliament on Monday) whilst, and here is the crucial difference, refusing direct talks with London on the subject.

Related coverage: https://thegoldwater.com/news/19608-Brexit-UK-PM-May-Slams-Europe-Over-Ireland-Border-Proposal

Trying to defuse the problem of the possible re-instalment of a border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, Ms May had stated in the UK Parliament that: "There are many examples of different arrangements for customs around the rest of the world and indeed we are looking at those, including for example the border between the United States and Canada."

However, Mr. Varadkar, the Irish Prime Minister (or the ‘Taoiseach’ as it is known in Dublin) said in response: "That is definitely not a solution that we can possibly entertain."

<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en-gb"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">&quot;That is definitely not a solution that we can possibly entertain&quot; – Taoiseach rules out US/Canada style border <a href="https://t.co/LA0mSdVfYQ">pic.twitter.com/LA0mSdVfYQ</a></p>&mdash; RTÉ News (@rtenews) <a href="https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/970757944987082753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">5 March 2018</a></blockquote>

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He furthermore underlined his refusal by referring to last year’s visit of the Canadian – US border in a tweet.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en-gb"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Just visited Canada-US border. It&#39;s high tech and highly efficient, but make no mistake - it&#39;s a hard border. <a href="https://t.co/VUVwtLyuGA">pic.twitter.com/VUVwtLyuGA</a></p>&mdash; Leo Varadkar (@campaignforleo) <a href="https://twitter.com/campaignforleo/status/900073098032160770?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">22 August 2017</a></blockquote>

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The influential Irish Times quoted him: “I saw a hard border, with physical infrastructure, with customs posts, people in uniform with arms and dogs."

Source:

http://www.dw.com/en/irish-pm-rejects-theresa-mays-proposal-of-canada-like-borde