Science and superstition are supposed to be mutually exclusive branches of human endeavour. However, there is something almost voodoo-like about the incantatory manner in which the phrase “high-tech solutions” is repeated by British political bigwigs whenever they seek to explain how a hard customs border can be avoided after Brexit. The words may sound ultramodern but the apparent reliance on the mesmeric power of their vehement repetition is positively primitive. Mumbo jumbo, hocus-pocus, borderline babble.
David Davis, Britain’s Brexit secretary, is an especially ardent disciple of the techno-wizardry mantra. His confident belief that all post-Brexit problems presented by the serpentine and blurry frontier between the Republic and Northern Ireland can be solved through the use of gadgets, gizmos and drones is shared by almost nobody