Anthony Gifford | Brexit set to bring different tariffs, new regulatory controls

While taking a family holiday in England and Ireland, I was able to follow the Brexit drama closely. Every day brings a new episode of what feels like a soap opera. My views on Brexit are well known. I believe that the European Union has been a unique experience of peacemaking and cooperation. Taking away the freedom of people, especially the young, to move around 27 amazing, ancient and beautiful countries, working if they wish to, is going to be a sad loss. Britain will also lose much of the skilled labour, from professionals to fruit pickers, which has enriched the UK economy.

The referendum campaign in 2016 became a platform for extremists and liars, and the graveyard of a progressive MP Jo Cox, who was shot and stabbed to death by a British fascist shouting “keep Britain Independent”. Since no one knew in 2016 what the terms of any Brexit deal would be, there should be a second referendum on the deal (or no deal) which is finally reached.

While Jamaicans laugh at the antics of Boris Johnson, I find that many do not fully understand the key issue which divides the EU and UK negotiators. It is known as the Irish backstop, which sounds like an obstacle in some stupid game. It is in fact a recognition of the need to preserve peace in Ireland after centuries of oppression. The humiliation of the Catholic Irish by the British over centuries included the mass settlement of Protestants, the deliberate creation of the Irish famine, and in the 20th century internment without trial, torture, the murder of unarmed demonstrators, and the continuing denial of independence to the island of Ireland as a whole. In 1921 the island was partitioned, with 26 counties forming the Republic of Ireland, and 6 counties in the mainly Protestant north remaining part of the United Kingdom. Throughout the century many Irish people continued to fight for a United Ireland.

I spent a lot of time in Northern Ireland on human rights missions. In 1969 I interviewed civil rights marchers who had been beaten by a squad of ‘B Specials’, a brutal arm of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. I investigated the practice of using ‘supergrasses’, former paramilitaries who were coached as prosecution witnesses, to obtain dubious convictions. I often visited Derry, which I believe to be the only city in the world whose name depends on your religion. The Irish name was always ‘Daire’, meaning oak grove in Irish; but the British renamed it ‘Londonderry’ in the 17th century to symbolise British control. Derry was the location of the Bloody Sunday tragedy in 1972, when 14 young men were murdered by British paratroopers in the course of a peaceful demonstration about internment.

After Bloody Sunday the Irish Republican Army gained hundreds of recruits, and murders by shooting and bombing were carried out by both Protestant and Catholic paramilitaries, and by the British army. The IRA extended its campaign to the UK mainland, and some of the worst of the bombings, in Birmingham and Guildford, led to gross miscarriages of justice through the conviction of the innocent. These were terrible times. I remember looking at the front page of a London paper where a photograph showed that several City of London skyscrapers had suffered huge damage from an IRA bomb, and thinking that some settlement would have to be made.

Good Friday agreement

The greatest achievement of Prime Minister Tony Blair was that he presided over the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The governments of the UK and Ireland agreed to recognise the legitimate wishes of both communities in Northern Ireland. A United Ireland would not be sought unless the majority in Northern Ireland voted for it. Power in Northern Ireland would be devolved to a power-sharing government involving members of Republican and Unionist parties. Various north-south agencies for reconciliation were set up. Paramilitaries would give up their arms. And the heavily fortified police stations and frontier posts were dismantled. Driving from Dublin to Derry last month, I crossed several of the border crossings, of which there are 208 in all, without seeing a police or customs officer. The whole of Ireland is at peace.

But it is easy to see that if the UK leaves the European Union, the situation will have to change. With Brexit, goods crossing the border will be subject to different tariffs and different regulatory control. Smugglers will have valuable opportunities. Frontier posts will have to be built which will be a target for extremists. There is the experience the border betweeen Norway (which is non-EU) and Sweden (EU), where there are large customs posts and constant checking of goods. If there is no special arrangement, the Good Friday agreement will be history.

This is where the ‘backstop’ was conceived, originally as a proposal from Prime Minister May, who abandoned it under pressure from Unionist MPs in Northern Ireland. The EU, including Ireland, have proposed that there should continue to be no hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, but that any customs and health checks on goods would be made elsewhere. The two parts of Ireland would remain in a customs union for an indefinite time, until some long term agreement is reached. The checks would kick in when goods were shipped from the island of Ireland to other parts of the UK. May and Johnson claim that this would divide the United Kingdom (which is rapidly becoming the Disunited Kingdom of England).

Why does this matter to Jamaicans? The whole Brexit saga matters because it has been in large part caused by the emergence of xenophobia and racism in the UK, which will affect the multiracial harmony which Jamaicans have done much to achieve. The constitutional issues matter because the foundation of both our systems is the concept of a parliamentary democracy, which is being challenged by Boris Johnson. And the Irish question matters because both Ireland and Jamaica are recovering from an imperialist history, and when Johnson proclaims that he will ‘ditch the backstop’, his attitude is as arrogant as when David Cameron told Jamaicans to “move on” from complaining about slavery. Whatever happens in the next episode, we should stand firm with the people of Ireland.

Anthony Gifford, QC, is a human rights attorney based in Jamaica. He appeared as counsel for the family of Jim Wray at the Bloody Sunday inquiry. Feedback tolgifford@cwjamaica.com