Analysis: How a stent made in Galway and a pacemaker from Clonmel show up Brexit risks

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s latest gambit to prevent any close scrutiny of his Brexit strategy by the British parliament, by closing down the shop for five weeks, should not blind either the EU or Irish negotiators to the enormity of trade disruption that will arise from a hard exit of the UK at the end of October.

What is at stake is €500bn in two-way trade in goods alone between the EU and the UK and a further €326bn in two-way trade on services. Disrupting this level of trade has the potential to push the UK and Ireland into recession and to bring down the EU too.