As opponents of Brexit once said, we must listen to the experts — now on the protocol

There was a kerfuffle recently after women from the Shankill and elsewhere appeared before the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee (NIAC) in Westminster.

One of the women was criticised for saying that propaganda was being pushed in loyalist communities such as hers to paint the Northern Ireland Protocol in as negative a light as possible.

The witness is as entitled to her view as anyone else, and any intimidatory response to her comments was outrageous. However, it would be troubling if the NIAC was paying close heed to such perceptions. After all, many critics of Brexit made the point that sometimes it is right to heed expert voices over less informed ones.

Likewise on the protocol.

Inevitably an agreement so complex has been understood well only by a tiny fraction of the population. It seems indeed that the UK government might not have fully grasped what it was signing away in 2019.

London certainly now seems to be genuinely alarmed as to the implications of the Irish Sea border.

The latest disturbing report comes from the British Generic Manufacturers Association, which thinks 2,000 drugs will not be able to be delivered to NI from December.

Thus unionists, far from trying to make the most of the protocol, now need to be embarking on a long public information campaign as to its disastrous implications.

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