England must start to listen to its neighbours on these troubled isles | Martin Kettle

As Brexit looms, humility and respect are required to see us through this crisis together

As you drive south from Derry and turn right to cross the Foyle river by the Asda outside Strabane, nothing tells you that you are about to leave one country and enter another. There are no signs, no flags, no police and, though I may have missed them, no security cameras either. It’s only when you see the words Bus Éireann on the stop on the far side of the bridge that you get any inkling that you have left the United Kingdom and are now in the Irish Republic.

A couple of weeks ago I took a road trip around the British Isles. We went from London up to southwest Scotland, then on through Northern Ireland – via Derry and Strabane – to County Sligo, before returning via Dublin and Holyhead and home through north Wales. We took in five countries in six days, crossed five borders, and I never once had to show my passport at any of them. I hadn’t expected to do so. But for how much longer will this be so?

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