SCOTTISH
INDEPENDENCE: Sending a letter is just one of the many things a border will
make a great deal more expensive, writes Brian Wilson
It’s
an old trick to ask if a politician knows the price of a pint of milk. I tried
a variation of the same theme this week while debating with a luminary of
Scottish nationalism.
A
questioner asked about postal charges between Scotland and England in the event
of independence. As usual, the Nat response was that life would go on as
before. I asked if he knew what it costs to post a letter from the UK to the
Republic of Ireland, even just a few hundred yards between north and south.
He
didn’t, which seemed as careless as not knowing the price of a pint of milk.
The answer is that, because Ireland is treated by Royal Mail as an
international destination (as Scotland would become), the cost of postage is
between twice and four times greater than the cost of a first-class stamp, for
delivery within five days.
Consider
the plea of a local politician in County Tyrone who paid £2.38 for a stamp that
would have cost, at most, 62p if the letter had stayed within the UK. “It’s
crazy,” she complained. “It is very expensive and nobody can understand it”. To
which one might reasonably have replied: “It’s the border, stupid”.
In
more rational times, quadrupled postal charges would represent quite an
important issue and also an illustration of an under-stated truth – that
borders are indeed very expensive and the costs are paid in money and jobs. I
am not naïve enough to expect this to concern Nationalists but those who would
be forced to pay their price might take note.
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