New think-tank publishes report calling for Assembly to be banned from acting in way ‘incompatible with the Acts of Union’

By Adam Kula
Published 9th Jan 2023, 13:05 BST
Updated 9th Jan 2023, 16:20 BST
Unionists have grown increasingly concerned about the future of NI's place in the Union as a consequence of the ProtocolUnionists have grown increasingly concerned about the future of NI's place in the Union as a consequence of the Protocol
Unionists have grown increasingly concerned about the future of NI's place in the Union as a consequence of the Protocol
A report into the state of the Union has been published, calling for Westminster to pass a law to bar devolved governments from acting in contravention of the Acts of Union.

Called 'Northern Ireland's Place in the Union', it has been drawn up by a group called The Centre for the Union – one of a handful of new pro-unionist think-tanks which have emerged in recent times (others being Jamie Bryson’s ‘Unionist Voice’, and the ‘Together UK Foundation’, championed by Arlene Foster).

The report was authored by loyalist activist Jamie Bryson and a man called Ethan Thoburn, a 21-year-old campaigner from London with a long resume that includes being Conservative deputy area chairman for the north-east of England.

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It also contains a foreword by James Bogle, a former army officer (who had been posted to Northern Ireland) turned London barrister, who is also a former chairman of the Catholic Union of Great Britain – a body for lay believers which is "dedicated to the defence of Catholic values in Parliament and public life, and the promotion of the common good".

In the foreword, he writes that the Protocol "in effect, has shifted the border between the United Kingdom and the European Union from where it ought to be, namely between the Province of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (Eire), to an artificial line drawn through the Irish Sea cutting off Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom".

This is being driven by people who see such an arrangements as a step on the way to Northern Ireland "being annexed and incorporated into the Republic of Ireland".

The report, he says, "aims to provide workable solutions that remedy and repair the constitutional damage occasioned by the Protocol and to remove the attendant threats to peace, security and stability arising therefrom".

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Here, according to a summary of the report, are the main proposed remedies:

• "A UK Constitutional Bill which would entrench the supremacy of the Acts of Union; restrict the legislative competence of the NI Assembly to prevent the adoption of any provision incompatible with the Acts of Union; and amend section 1 (the principle of consent) of the NI Act 1998 to encompass the Acts of Union within the meaning of Northern Ireland remaining part of the Union.

• "A model which would end the application of EU law in Northern Ireland by transposing EU law which currently applies in respect of NI – only in so far as it mirrors GB – into domestic law as Retained EU law and requiring that any further EU law adopted be subject to the cross-community consent of the NI Assembly.

• "The development of a new regulatory model which restores NI fully to the UK’s customs territory and creates an ‘EU tunnel’ which requires those exporting from anywhere in the UK into the EU via the entry point of the Republic of Ireland to self-declare, with criminal penalties for failing to do so, or for exporting without adhering to EU standards.”

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