IRELAND GOING BUST AS NORTH BOOMS..
We touched on this the other day and it is NOT going away...
"Until the other day, it was regarded as harmless to nip across the Irish border to pick up a bargain. Now suddenly it is being denounced as "the ultimate act of patriotic sabotage". A heated battle between patriotism and the purse is breaking out in the Irish Republic as the Irish government struggles to overcome its greatest economic challenge in decades. And things are so bad in southern Ireland that those who motor into Northern Ireland to shop are being publicly pressurised to confine their purchases to their own jurisdiction.
Lord Mayor of Dublin Eibhlin Byrne is among those urging an exercise of "civic patriotism" and asking people not to cross the border to pick up Christmas bargains. She declared yesterday: "These are critical times. People need to be aware that when they make the decision to go north they are taking their spending out of the city and there will be repercussions." So far, such appeals have had little visible effect, since the signs are that more southerners than ever are making their way north since the collapse in the value of sterling against the euro."
There can be only one solution. Time to erect a 20 foot tall policed border between North and South and make sure that the unpatriotic Irish are hemmed in rather than permitted to enter the shopping nirvana that is Northern Ireland. Either that or drop Irish VAT from 21.5% to 15%. Oh, and leave the Eurozone.
David Vance
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Reader Comments (11)
I guess it's one of the side-issues of the Brown VAT cut that the Irish are being punished for stealing British-based multinationals through low business taxes? Not something I agree with I have to say, if so.
Ireland has pursued the path of austerity, and this will soon be shown to be the correct response to the self-inflicted credit crunch. We can gloat now but only momentarily.
Go on Ed T explain further - you have the floor.
SmCGIFF,
Don't know when Brown's VAT tax comes into force, but it widens the gap between the rates in the UK and Ireland, intensifying a trend for Southerners to head North for cheaper goods. Of course the virtual devaluation of the pound that's taking place will also have a big effect. As for punishing Ireland- business taxes in the South have been lower than those in the UK for a long time by an appreciable amount, and many London-based multis have gone to SI to take advantage of this. Gordon Brown may well not care if VAT cuts hurt the Irish economy- two can play differential tax games, after all.
The Northern Ireland economic authorities ought to send Lord Mayor Byrne a gift basket of fine wines and cheeses at the very least. He have them a huge endorsement and some fine publicity. Even from here, I can hear the the car engines starting across a great swath of the country, from Louth clear across to Sligo. They're heading north to go shopping.
And if you don't recognize the border, it can't possibly be seen as an issue. Byrne is further chided for expressing a partitionist view.
The UK can have our Christmas shoppers and we'll have your financial services sector.
Eibhlin Byrne did refer to civic patriotism. That is that Dublin shoppers should shop in Dublin. The point she is making is that if people from Dublin spend money outside of Dublin then it hits the shops in Dublin, which will then close and the people of Dublin will thus suffer a higher degree of rates.
It is wrong to describe it as unpatriotic for Irish shoppers to shop anywhere in Ireland.
The Lord Mayor of Dublin, like Brian Lenihan the other day, is being less than honest.
When he says the Irish ought to spend their money in Ireland, he actually means he's just another dreary authoritarian with a job title who doesn't realise that where the Irish people spend their money is none of the Irish State's business.
If they could they'd close the border and bring the violence of law against those Irish who retained the temerity to spend their own money as they see fit.
But they cannot do that as the Irish State destroyed Irish self-determination when it gave away the right of the Irish to govern themselves to a foreign and hostile power in Europe.
That's what they mean.
I musta missed them complaining when the boot was on the other foot, as it was until about a year ago when thousands of drivers in NI bought their petrol in the south and fuel smuggling was rampant.
Win some, lose some guys. Get over it and quit whingeing.
"IRELAND GOING BUST AS NORTH BOOMS.."
The North?? Surely some mistake David, a touch of the Conor Murphyitis :>)
The Dub Mayor should catch a grip it's swings & roundabouts.
How much would a northern wage buy you outside the UK???
Swings and roundabouts folks, wages still considerably higher in the not so black 26....