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A representative from Border Communities Against Brexit has written to the members of the Northern Ireland Business Representative Groups, calling on them to support the ongoing UK / EU negotiations and not to give any credence to triggering Article 16. The move comes ahead of a planned public protest this Saturday 20 November at Carrickcarnon, 3pm.
The Spokesperson explained the purpose of the letter was to explain ultimately why triggering Article 16 is not the solution, it would not provide stability as claimed by the UK Government. We are a very interconnected Island, with over 40 million vehicles moving North South and South North Annually.
The letter reads "Just begin to imagine the societal and economic impact on everyone living on this Island if that Border had to be managed to protect the Single Market.
Those of us living in the Border Region remember the awful infrastructure from our past, that’s where that must remain, in our past, only in our memory.
We as a society have moved on so much since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the trick of the Protocol was to ensure that our land border does not need to be managed, that the huge volume of traffic that moves across it and around our Island can do so without checks, so life can be as normal as possible.
The majority of people and political parties in Northern Ireland support the Protocol, and more broadly we have seen economic growth, with some businesses now moving from South to North to benefit from the unfettered access to the UK market and that of the EU.
Our ask of the Business Representative Groups is simple, in your engagements with the British Government and especially with Lord Frost, to continue to strongly urge them to stay fully engaged in talks with the European Union, to remind them that the majority of people here support the Protocol, and under no circumstances invoke Article 16.
Our society need's strong economic growth, needs jobs but especially the conditions to create and maintain those jobs, the Protocol does this.
So please each and every one of you, stay firm on the need for dialogue and creative solutions, but please under no circumstances add to or give credence to the triggering of Article 16, this would be a tremendous backward step for this society and our Island.
In fact it could be argued the instability of triggering Article 16 could lead to serious economic damage to the economies of Britain and Ireland both in discouraging trade and damaging already strained relations."
