Irish Examiner view: Will Britain turn off the gas taps as energy crisis escalates?

Before Brexit, Britain was compelled to consider our needs but that safeguard is now gone

Vladimir Putin has made it clear that energy reduction to the EU and other Western democracies will be a primary weapon for winter. Picture: AP

It seems difficult to comprehend the notion that our nearest neighbour, a nation with which hundreds of thousands of people have familial ties, would do Ireland harm in a period of collective crisis by taking action that could cut off gas supplies this winter.

Yet, that is what we are being asked to contemplate by suggestions that Britain has contingency plans to cease provision to Europe in the event of continent-wide shortages following the illegal Russian invasion of the Ukraine.