Sturgeon’s hard border with England comes into view

When it comes to making the case for removing Scotland from its most important trading bloc, Nicola Sturgeon takes her lines directly from the Brexiteer playbook. Asked about the possibility of a post-independence hard border between Scotland and England, Sturgeon’s standard response has been to tell people what she would want instead of the reality of what would be.

Just as Brexiteers started off under the delusion that both frictionless trade with the EU and the freedom to trade on UK terms with the rest of the world was what they wanted and was achievable, so too Sturgeon liked to suggest she was aiming for an independent Scotland with all the benefits of open trading relationships to EU and remaining UK markets. Now that the terms of the EU-UK trade deal are established, however, that line is no longer tenable.

As outlined in a new report from the Institute for Government, the border realities of Scotland leaving the UK, particularly if Scotland then joined the EU, are dramatic.