But For The Irish Sea

Due to security concerns, the British have announced that the common travel area has to be modified. No longer can the Irish travel across the Irish Sea and set foot on British soil without producing a passport.

Travel between Scotland or Wales and England will remain unaffected. How else could it exist, seeing as how those components of the United Kingdom are all on one island. Crossing the border between one and the other involves walking over an imaginary line, with no real demarcation to mar the land.

Ian Paisley believes that his little corner of the U.K. is every bit as British as the soil of Wales and Scotland. When a Welshman or a Scot wish to go to London to see the Queen, they do not have to produce a passport in order to leave their home turf. The diploma mill Reverend has made it known to Prime Minister Gordon Brown that it will be very dangerous, and downright unfair, to force a Northern Irish Englishman to show papers in order to gain entry.

Very dangerous, he says, to treat the citizens of Northern Ireland any differently than the rest of the U.K. Why, it would appear as if the folks in the Six Counties aren't actually part of the U.K. at all. They'd be asked for passports, just like the travellers making their way from the Republic of Ireland. It's almost as if everyone living on the island of Ireland were Irish, and if that's the case, is London wavering on the union?

Mr. Paisley is aware that, without added security controls, terrorists could travel from Dublin to London with ease, and that could endanger lives. Illegal immigrants arriving in the Republic could hop over to England and what's to stop them? Yes, greater control is needed, but surely there must be some other way, Prime Minister.

What truly rankles is the British decision to not beef up security at the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. As it is nothing more than a long imaginary line, and it would be impossible to regulate the land border (see also U.S./Mexico border control), there is no financially sensible way to secure it. More logical, then, to stop unwanted entrants at the main gate.

Don't have a different set of rules for one group of British citizens, Mr. Paisley insists. No difference would need to exist, but for the Irish Sea, which is not a land border at all, at all. Mr. Brown's government understands that Ireland is an island, a single land mass. Mr. Paisley, however, would prefer not to believe it.