Interesting Links for 22-03-2017

[andrewducker]

On dick pics and the desexualisation of men (tags: sex men penis society ) New Zealand school abolishes gendered uniforms, offering same clothes to all (tags: newzealand clothing gender ) This is what Scottish independence could actually look like (or completely different, of course) (tags: independence scotland thefuture ) Losing a dog can be

Comments

[bart_calendar]

My prediction is that if a hard border wall went up then RyanAir and EasyJet would simply start running a lot of routes from every major city on the mainland to Scotland.

[andrewducker]

Yup.

And we already fly to a lot of places, it would just increase. We have lots of finance here, and being able to continue doing that in English would make us more valuable.

[bart_calendar]

Yep and people would be willing to pay for the flights to avoid going through real customs in the UK and then again when entering Scotland.

[drdoug]

Quite possibly, but nobody is saying that a hard border between England and Scotland wouldn't have (lots of) official crossing points. You'd need the same customs and immigration checks whether you're flying, driving or walking across the border.

[bart_calendar]

Yes. But you wouldn't have to also go through UK customs before you went through Scottish customs.

You'd just have to do it once.

[naath]

But fly from France to atn EU Scotland and you will avoid UK customs, unlike if you train'd via London.

Bring backthe ferry from Norway...

[ylla]

Why not Rosyth-Zeebrugge?

[naath]

Many ferries! (yes, that could be a better route)

[ylla]

Yes, I'd like a Norway ferry too, but not for general getting-to-the-continent purposes :-)

[a_pawson]

You probably wouldn't need that many points. There are only 5 major roads that cross the border, and of those I suspect >95% of the traffic is on the M6 or A1.

[naath]

Their are footpaths and minor roads that would need consideration too. And both the W and E CMs. Huge hassle.

[a_pawson]

Trains are easy, you process people through customs at the stations either when you board or when you embark, the same as you do with planes.

Minor roads I suspect would be closed. It will be inconvenient, but that's the downside to not having free movement.

Footpaths probably not. A lot of the border is in pretty remote terrain, so it will always be possible for people to walk across it if they want to. I remember we accidentally walked into Russia when we were in Finland. Aside from the roads that cross that border, there is no fence, and the border there is only marked by paint on the trees. Unless Mrs May decides she wants to build a wall and make Scotland pay for it!!!

[naath]

I have walked across the border, it's not exactly hard to do. I dunno how fence-likemost of the EU external border is

[ylla]

If I'm understanding http://www.dft.gov.uk/traffic-counts/ correctly, the A1 and M6 between them carry roughly 75% of the traffic on the 5 main roads at the moment. Are you suggesting that all the traffic from the A696, A697 and A7 should be pushed onto them as well?

[a_pawson]

No, I'm suggesting that there would probably only need to be 5 border crossings. The remaining roads are very mostly single-track affairs and would presumably be closed.