David Jones, the hard-line Conservative MP, said on Sunday Supplement this morning that the EU in the course of negotiations were "always going to use Northern Ireland as a compression point". Like so many Brexiteers, he misses the point of the EU which was implicit in its roots as the European Coal and Steel Community: the elimination of armed conflict in Europe by means of ever-growing inter-connectedness. By joining the EU together, the UK and the Republic laid the foundation for peace on the island of Ireland. To the freedom of movement of people of the Common Travel Area was added the free movement of goods. Brexit has increased the separation between north and south as never before, and revived old suspicions and enmities within Northern Ireland. It was in conflict with the Belfast Agreement once the government set its face against the customs union. The province is more than a mere bargaining chip.
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