#border checks

It is typically referred to as the “Irish border” problem, but this is really a “British border” in Ireland, existing only because of Britain’s colonial partitioning of the island. Anyway, following a no-deal Brexit, some kind of border checks will be necessary along that unnatural dividing line. Hence, the calls for a “border poll” — a provision of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), which would see a referendum on Irish unity take place on both sides of the border. Sinn Féin, the Irish republican party most ardently pushing for reunification, has already called for a unity vote to follow a no-deal scenario. Party leader Mary Lou McDonald said this week such a situation would represent a "dramatic change of circumstances" for Ireland, north and south, and it must be given the “opportunity to decide” on its future together. She is right, but Boris Johnson and the Tories naturally have no interest in entertaining any talk of Irish unity, despite the fact that the GFA calls for London to exercise its power in Northern Ireland with “rigorous impartiality” in acknowledgement that changes in its constitutional status can be made only by the people of Ireland.