Samuel Morrison: If unionists accept this deal we will be accepting that we will never again be treated as a full and equal part of the UK

It does not change the substance of the Northern Ireland Protocol and merely repackages it.​

The key point every unionist needs to consider is whether or not it restores our place within the United Kingdom.

Any unionist should surely see this as the basic starting point. It is, after all, the cornerstone of the united unionist declaration of Ulster Day 2021 that unionist leaders are united in their “unalterable position that the Protocol must be rejected and replaced by arrangements which fully respect Northern Ireland’s position as a constituent and integral part of the United Kingdom”.

Some are doing their best to persuade unionists that all is well.

A diagram on the BBC website claims: ‘Goods destined for Northern Ireland go into the Green Lane meaning they won’t have to be checked and would require minimal paperwork.’

This is simply untrue. Goods in the so-called ‘Green Lane’ will be subjected to checks as and when our EU overlords see fit.

And what constitutes ‘minimal paperwork’?

We already know that 21 data fields will have to be completed in order to take goods through the green lane.

The exact nature of the data required remains unclear to those expected to operate the system.

One suspects that if truth were told the BBC are unable to offer any greater insight on the matter.

How does one get into the ‘Green Lane’?

Only if they can prove that their goods will not end up in the Republic.

If there is a risk of them crossing into the Republic the default position is that goods coming to Northern Ireland from Great Britain are placed in the Red Line.

It is beyond doubt that Article VI of the Acts of Union, which guarantees an equal footing on trade across the United Kingdom, remains suspended. We are not, whatever the BBC might try to tell us, in a position where Northern Ireland has had freedom of trade restored with the rest of the UK.

Unsurprisingly, the former Attorney General for Northern Ireland John Larkin KC has already informed us that the Windsor Framework is not compatible with the Acts of Union.

Surely it is only reasonable for unionists to defend the Act of Union above all else – the name of the Act provided the name for the political movement after all.

What unionism needs is a united stand motivated by principle.

What is the basis for unity?

One would do worse than to look at the birthright of Northern Ireland, the Ulster Covenant. It was built on the simple principle that we would unitedly set about “defending, for ourselves and our children, our cherished position of equal citizenship in the United Kingdom”.

All unionists need to ask themselves is this – does the deal deliver equal citizenship in the United Kingdom? The answer to that is obvious and emphatic. We alone within the UK remain subject to foreign laws we do not make and cannot change overseen by a foreign court.

You can dress the protocol up as the ‘Windsor Framework’ on the day Ursula von der Leyen has tea with His Majesty the King if you wish. That will not change the reality that, as von der Leyen reminded us, the European Court, not His Majesty's courts, remains "the sole and ultimate arbiter of EU law" in Northern Ireland.

Such a situation should be anathema to unionists but then one only has to wind the clock back to a few months prior to the last election to find a situation where a unionist minister was building the infrastructure which made Larne a border town.

Let there be no doubt about this – if unionists accept this deal we will be accepting a situation where we will never again be treated as a full and equal part of the United Kingdom.

And for what?

So that we can have Michelle O'Neill as First Minister?

That cannot be a legacy which any unionist would look back upon with anything other than embarrassment.