Irish leader backs UK idea of bridge to Scotland

"I know people dismiss these things out of hand, but they used to dismiss the Channel Tunnel as well ... and I know what I see when I see a bridge between Denmark and Sweden, [or] when you fly over New Orleans [in the US] and you see 110 miles of bridge. It's extraordinary," he said.

The Northern Ireland bridge plan was first put forward by British prime minister Boris Johnson in September, who said it would cost "only" £15bn (€18bn).

It came amid emotional Brexit talks on how to keep open the Irish land border without creating a new customs border in the Irish Sea, which might make Northern Ireland feel cut off from the rest of the UK.

And it was derided by experts, who said the depth of the water made the project nothing like the Channel Tunnel or the Denmark-Sweden bridge and that the economic benefits of connecting Scottish and Northern Irish cities were nothing like those of connecting Paris to London.

The Northern Ireland bridge would require 30 support masts each one taller than the Eiffel Tower and was "about as feasible as building a bridge to the moon," one retired offshore engineer, James Duncan, told British newspaper The Times in September.

"No sane contractor or responsible government" would undertake its construction, he said.

But Johnson's final Brexit deal does envisage an Irish Sea customs border and he has continued to promote his bridge scheme.

"It is a very interesting idea ... watch that space between those islands," he told MPs in the House of Commons one week ago.

He has talked about it with Varadkar, who added, recalling one conversation between the two men: "At which point he [Johnson] suggested: 'No, no, the EU is going to pay for it [the bridge]'. So that's definitely not going to happen, because neither Northern Ireland or Scotland are going to be in the EU. But it was kind of half-serious, half-joking in a way".

The Scottish engineer who originally conceived the bridge in 2018, Alan Dunlop, also praised it on Thursday.

"I'm delighted that the taoiseach has ... come out in support of the idea," Dunlop told Scottish newspaper The National.

"A bridge to link Scotland and the UK to Ireland is a project fit for the 21st century. There is also interest internationally. I've spoken about it with colleagues in the US and on visits to Australia and China this year. We have the engineering and architectural talent here in Scotland to create such a structure," Dunlop said.

And with the UK poised to leave the EU on 31 January, Johnson might need an ostentatious enterprise to make people feel good in future.

Symbolism

The "symbolic" first post-Brexit year could see weak growth and falling employment in Britain, the Resolution Foundation, a London-based think-tank, warned also on Thursday.

There were "clouds on the horizon" for 2020 "with worrying signs including falling vacancies and rising youth unemployment," it said.

"So much unnecessary damage has been done to you [British people], and all of us. And I fear more will follow," European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans also said in an open letter to British newspaper The Guardian one day after Christmas.

With the flashy bridge plan back in the air, Timmermans spoke of Brexit itself as a populist trick, adding: "Our differences [were] manipulated to instil fear, to propagate superiority, to set one family member against the other."

But the UK "will always be welcome to come back" and rejoin the EU if it wanted, he said.