How Brexit Got Snagged on the Irish Border

If you’re looking at the British media, you might be forgiven for assuming that some kind of war has broken out between Britain and Ireland. A spokesperson for British far-right party UKIP claimed Ireland had “threatened” the U.K., taunting it as “the weakest kid in the playground.” The Sun declared that Ireland’s Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar should “shut his gob…and grow up.” Even more outrageously, the associate editor of Britain’s Telegraph complained that Ireland has “poisoned U.K. politics and brought down governments for centuries”—which, given the countries’ grim shared history, is a bit like blaming Ireland’s punched-in face for getting England’s fists bloody.

So what’s behind this wave of embittered tub-thumping on the British right? The same one that’s been the source for most of Britain’s bizarre political behavior over the past 18 months: Brexit. While the U.K. is committed to leaving the European Union, the Republic of Ireland has never conceived of leaving. And that’s turning the Irish border into a virtual battleground.