Lock Down county and a well Kent border in Britain

In 2018 the Rt Hon Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson MP was the British Foreign Secretary.

Two years ago, the prospect of  Brexit making the British imposed border on this island a hard frontier again was in the news.

Back then, Boris stated that technology would deal with any such post-Brexit untidiness.

He famously observed that “there’s no border between Camden and Westminster”.

It was the response of a historically illiterate buffoon.

A century ago, the Brits threatened the Irish delegation in London with “immediate and terrible war” if they did not accept the terms of the Treaty.

The imposition of an armed frontier cut Donegal off from the rest of Ulster and propelled it into generations of penury.

Now it would appear that the Brits have no problem with imposing an internal border within their own country.

It would appear that they are determined to become the Sevco of Europe.

Paul Larkin, my comrade and neighbour over the mountain in Gaoth Dobhair, didn’t miss.

I recall reading about the restrictions imposed on the civilian population in the south of England in the months leading up to D-Day.

They were impositions on the citizenry that were not those readily associated with a democracy.

However, that was wartime.

Now Britain looks to be imposing economic sanctions on themselves.

Clever.

Still, they’ll have blue passports.

In the face of a pandemic imposing a local quarantine can be justified.

An earlier countywide lockdown seems to have worked in Kildare after an upsurge in Covid infections there.

So now it’s our turn in Dún na nGall, and we have just moved up the Level 3.

There is no shortage of stories here in the county about Darwin Award house parties.

However, Donegal’s Covid troubles many stems from sharing a long land border with a dysfunctional polity.

The failure to agree a 32 County response to this pandemic six months ago is just another episode in the insanity of partition.

There are benefits and drawbacks to being on a small island.

However, in the time of a plague, it can be a real boon.

Think lifeboat…

Although the infection rate for this county as a whole is bad, the real problem is in east Donegal along the border with the Six Counties.

A senior HSE source told me today that the infection rate (calculated per 100,000) in the Stranorlar/Lifford area was double that of Dublin’s figures!

Consequently, he said that Level 4 for Donegal was highly likely if this Level 3 lockdown didn’t show some improvements.

Making the county border here something real on the ground makes scientific sense in the current situation.

What they’re doing in the Garden of England only makes sense if you’re hiding in a hedge fund and hoping for the worst.

Wherever you are, please stay safe and ignore idiots.

Beating Covid is a job for all of us.