That UK-Irish border problem: the zeppelin solution
Above: one possible drawback
Zeppelins are part of a proposed solution to the UK-Ireland border problem after Brexit.
An influential British think tank has suggested that drones or airships could be used to monitor the Irish border after Brexit.
The Legatum Institute raised the possibility of patrolling the skies in a paper entitled “Mutual Interest: How the UK and EU can resolve the Irish border issue after Brexit”. In the paper, they also suggest ground-based solutions, such as unattended ground sensors, cameras, and ground-wave radar. The think tank is considered influential with some government ministers, according to the BBC.
It states that “persistent surveillance of the border region” could be achieved through patrols by unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) or deployment of aerostats (airships or hot air balloons).
But it concedes “that these solutions are subject to a number of limitations, not least weather and cost”.
Still, it remains the most practical solution yet put forward by the British side, who after all, created the problem in the first place.
Other possible solutions include fairies.
H/t: Marina Hyde of the Graun (for the Zepplins) and Colin O’Driscoll (for the fairies)
Shiraz Socialist 
Matthew Thompson said,
November 28, 2017 at 12:50 pm
Spike Milligan’s Puckoon is being to look like a vision of the post-Brexit future in Ireland.
Glasgow Working Class said,
November 28, 2017 at 11:54 pm
I remember that the punters had to move along the Bar because of the pub license laws and the Border!
David Walsh said,
November 28, 2017 at 5:39 pm
As Airships seem to have drifted into your column, Can I recommend a piece I did for the Peoples Republic of Teesside on the links between socialism and dirigibles The final story about suffragette socialist balloonist Muriel Manners deserves retelling
http://republic-of-teesside.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/dirigible-daydreams-balloon-and-airship.html
Robert R. Calder said,
November 28, 2017 at 6:11 pm
I used to live pretty well on the border of Switzerland and Germany, just across the Bodensee (bizarrely called Lake Constance by les Anglais / Citoyennes du Grande Bretagne and English-speaking Manglophones) and of course this is a wonderful idea, given the private enterprise possibilities one can see when the Zeppelin blimp slips across above the rooftops with its load of paying passengers.
I gather there are lots of blimps in England, but there is a great opening.. where the RMS Titanic was built, and in Belfast too !!!
We could name the first one TITANIC and have it built in the very dock, and sell premium tickets for the first border crossing….
but there is the problem that as with the RMS T—-c more than one border might be crossed… ulp! And if there wasn’t a second flight perhaps there would be administrative difficulties with refunds?
Perhaps there could be premiums also for flights using native gas…
Or is this all hot air ?????
Or could I perhaps be joking in a sense more serious than Earnest,
cherish the plot!
John Cunningham said,
November 28, 2017 at 10:43 pm
Rarely can the term ‘think’ tank have been more inappropriately used!
Glasgow Working Class said,
November 28, 2017 at 11:59 pm
We should concentrate more on getting rid of Junkherr and his fellow travellers who are not required to serve the aspirations of the working classes.
wikifreaks disrael sniper1 said,
December 3, 2021 at 11:39 am
Click to access File:WIKISHEETA2.pdf
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:WIKISHEETA