Jim Allister: The Stormont Brake is ineffective, but I will be very happy to test it

Firstly, he fails to understand the elementary distinction between retained EU law in Great Britain, which can be changed whenever and however Parliament decides, and the 287 untouchable EU laws listed in Annex 2 of the protocol which cannot be changed by Parliament or the Assembly.

There is a world of difference between law being retained which can later be changed and being bound forever and a day by laws which we did not make and cannot change.

It is these 287 EU laws which are wholly beyond the reach of the Stormont Brake. They are the essence of EU colonial rule and not one syllable of them can be changed.

The fact that they include the EU Customs Code which decrees GB a third/foreign country highlights their Union-dismantling effect. But such, it seems, doesn’t bother Mr Brooks.

Secondly, Mr Brooks attacks those he describes as “our detractors” for pointing out the challenges posed if the flawed Stormont Brake is applied.

Ironically, the people who did more to expose the problems with the Stormont Brake were two of his DUP colleagues who, at last week’s Democratic Scrutiny Committee, teased out the fact that if the Brake is successfully applied, Northern Ireland would not end up with the same regulations as Great Britain but rather will default to the old position under the EU regulations.

Northern Ireland would therefore be left in a situation where the regulations here differ from both the EU and Great Britain.

I note that while Joanne Bunting (DUP MLA for East Belfast) and Jonathan Buckley (DUP MLA for Upper Bann) were keen to get this matter on the record last week, David Brooks - who is vice chair of the committee - had nothing to say on the matter.

Perhaps he views his party colleagues as detractors because they exposed the frailty of the Brake.

The term ‘trivergance’ to which he seems to take exception was that employed by both of David Brooks’s colleagues just last week.

To answer Mr Brooks’s question I will indeed happily test the Stormont Brake and, what’s more, it may be arranged to have it succeed at an early stage.

I share the assessment of his colleagues Sammy Wilson, Lord Dodds and Lord Morrow as expressed in this paper Saturday week ago:

“There will no doubt be a quick effort to demonstrate use of the Stormont Brake when a EU law is being changed but this will prove to be the exception and in any case can only be used in very limited circumstances.”

So, the Brake may well be successfully deployed on some matter and then hailed by the DUP (or at least the press office approved wing of the DUP) as the greatest victory since the Boyne. But such does not diminish its inherent ineffectiveness.

In truth, the DUP attempts to spin this deal are falling apart with each passing day. The response at Westminster to a question from another of Mr Brooks’s colleagues, Carla Lockhart, highlighted the fact that Sir Jeffrey’s boast to have removed 100% of the checks and paperwork in the green lane was incorrect.

When the convicted IRA terrorist and DUP coalition partner Conor Murphy got up to boast in the assembly about his vision for an “all-Ireland economy”, Mr Brooks had nothing to say - in spite of the fact that a week before his party was claiming that this concept was history.

Having addressed Mr Brooks’s question directly, allow me to put one to him - does he believe the claim made by his party leader in the aftermath of the deal that the Irish Sea border is gone or does he agree with Lord Dodds, Lord Morrow and Sammy Wilson that it remains?

If he does side with Sir Jeffrey in arguing that black is white then I have many constituents who would like to talk to him about the ongoing challenges they face.

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Jim Allister is leader of the TUV