So it turns out there is something Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party fears and loathes more than the possibility of a government led by Jeremy Corbyn. They would be prepared to sink Theresa May and her government to prevent even the remotest prospect of a border being introduced in the middle of the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
Which is why the prime minister has to be quadruply clear that any regulatory alignment she offers to the EU to prevent the re-establishment of a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic has to be alignment that applies clearly and equitably to the whole of the UK and not just to Northern Ireland.
The point is that alignment of just Northern Ireland – even if restricted to the narrow “Belfast Agreement” economic sectors of agriculture, energy, transport and veterinary products and services (though none of these are in any meaningful sense in the actual Belfast Agreement) – would establish a border in the sea.
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