So to the legions of experts required to make any sense of Northern Ireland we may now need to add lexicographers or semioticians. Where does the line, the border as it were, blur between regulatory “non-divergence” and “convergence” and “alignment”?
The EU-UK draft agreement that was on the table on Monday, suggests that, in all but name, Northern Ireland would have remained a part of the EU. Achieving the UK government’s agreement on this was a truly momentous achievement for Irish prime minister Leo Varadker, derided by the Brexiter ultras as being naive and out of his depth. This has been an international-relations baptism of fire, it is true, but he has come through unscathed. That the British government withdrew its own proposal was, to borrow a phrase once used by the former taoiseach Charles Haughey, “grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre, and unprecedented”. It is now unclear that it will be back on the table, which is a pity as it had the great merit of ambiguity. But the proposal also throws up as many questions as it answers – nothing new in the context of either Northern Ireland or the EU’s dealings with crises.
The relative economic history of the two parts of Ireland has itself two parts. In the first, lasting to the mid-20th century, investment and productivity went north. At partition in 1921, the situation was glaring. Northern Ireland had the industry and an outward orientation. Ireland was predominantly agricultural, and significantly poorer, with an economic policy that moved towards greater levels of autarky in the 1920s and 30s. The contrast since the 1950s is vast. The Irish economy now dwarfs that of the North; it is vastly more export-oriented, even allowing for the over-representation of multinational corporations. In terms of productivity, Northern Ireland lags behind the UK, which itself tends to lag behind the EU, while Ireland is significantly more productive. Belfast is a pleasant, if somewhat provincial, city while Dublin is a vibrant, booming European capital.
For more read the full of article at The Guardian.
