Despite a wealth of history suggesting that it’s a very bad idea, UK politicians have reportedly devised detailed plans to deploy English police officers in Northern Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
According to a report in The Sunday Times, the plans would first see approximately 300 Scottish police drafted in to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) as a preliminary step.
However, if tensions between the unionist and nationalist communities boil over or civil unrest erupts, officers from English forces will be deployed in the province.
A source at London’s City Hall told the newspaper: “All the police forces have agreed to give support to Northern Ireland. It is a concern. Thankfully it wouldn’t affect too many London officers, but we would be there. Imagine it: officers from the mainland in Northern Ireland. Bloody hell.”
Unsurprisingly the report has triggered alarm bells in Northern Ireland and Ireland with many people worrying that it could incite anger among Irish nationalists and endanger the fragile peace in the region.
“English police on the Irish border. What could go wrong? Don’t remember this on the referendum ballot paper or being debated in 2016? In the week we have remembered Mo Mowlam I despair at such a reckless attitude to hard-won peace,” Labour MP Anna Turley said.
“We have without doubt the most breathtakingly ignorant, arrogant and reckless Government this country has seen,” journalist Peter Stefanovic added.
They can’t be serious with this. This will, without doubt, cause a huge spike in violence in Northern Ireland. https://t.co/EkJ4PC4I0I
This is madness! Ministers have drawn up detailed plans to deploy police officers from English forces to Northern Ireland in the event of a no-deal. We have without doubt the most breathtakingly ignorant,arrogant & reckless Government this country has seen https://t.co/Fm6X56TuLR
Crown forces racked up a long history of brutality during hundreds of years of occupation of Ireland. In Northern Ireland British soldiers killed more than 300 people when they were deployed in the region during the Troubles.
There has been an uptick in dissident activity in recent months; on Monday, a bomb exploded in county Fermanagh in what police described as a “deliberate” attempt to kill officers. It was the fifth attack on security forces this year.
