What’s up with Northern Ireland?
In Northern Ireland, most of the population seems to be in favour of a Brexit. This also seems to be religiously motivated: many Protestants in the country are in favour of Brexit, while many Catholics support the EU.
Interestingly enough, the DUP, Northern Irelands largest political party, has been strongly campaigning for the Leave camp. They believe that political decisions should be made as close to the people as possible, and the EU is simply too far away from the people. They also claim that Northern Ireland has not profited from trade agreements with the EU.
The Remain camp has destroyed this economic argument quite simply. Northern Ireland is the only country in Great Britain that has a land border to an EU state. Most of Northern Ireland’s exports go to Ireland. If a Brexit were to become reality, a physical land border with customs posts and passport checks would have to be implemented. How could this possibly not have negative effects on the Northern Irish economy?
As well as this, Dr. Lee McGowan, a lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast, points out that the “EU’s Common Agricultural Policy accounts for some 82% of farm income across Northern Ireland. The figure of aid for the period 2014–20 is estimated at some €3billion. Is it to be expected that the UK Treasury would replace these funds with UK monies following Brexit? If it doesn’t what would happen to the farming and related agri-food sectors?”
As has been stated, the Brexit supporters seem to be in the lead according to the most recent polls. The economical reasons alone already convince me that a Brexit would have bad results for Northern Ireland, so I’m not sure why.
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