Where’s the fighting spirit of DUP & UUP over Irish Sea border?

Indeed, there is some laissez-faire suggestion of making the best of it and even an embracing of the false promise of ‘the best of both worlds’.

There is no ‘up’ side to a part of the United Kingdom being severed from the rest of the nation by being annexed into a foreign single market, foreign customs union, foreign VAT regime, ruled in these areas by foreign laws we cannot shape or change, and subjected to the rulings of a foreign court. It is the very antithesis of being an integral part of a United Kingdom.

When you can’t even import British soil to this part of the UK, then only a fool would think all is well.

The adverse constitutional impact is obvious. The infrastructure of the Irish Sea border is the physical manifestation of not just the partitioning of the United Kingdom but the locking of Northern Ireland into the economic orbit of the Republic/EU.

Over time, as GB progressively diverges from the EU, we are to be left in its bondage with our economy by compulsion re-orienting away from that of the UK to that of the Republic.

That is the evil genius of the Protocol: disrupting our supply chains from GB will force ever increasing supply chain dependence on the Republic, and, thereby, the all-island economy becomes a reality.

Just as the EU itself is framed to create economic unity as a portent to political union, so the Protocol is intended to operate to the same template of “ever closer Union” on the island of Ireland. The plan is that it is a short step from economic unity to political unity!

Faced with such a betrayal the leadership of Unionism should be fighting back with a determined political strategy to undo the Protocol. Instead of building its Irish Sea border and approving its laws we should be creating the circumstances where the Protocol cannot survive.

How could that be done in the face of a massive government majority? In the place where Unionists hold some cards, namely within the political arrangements in Northern Ireland.

If Article 16 is ever to be invoked then it will be to save something that matters more to the powers that be, namely Stormont.

Accordingly, I have three immediate proposals.

Underpinning Stormont, we are told, is the equilibrium of the north/south and east/west arrangements. With the east/west relationship being trashed by the operation of the Protocol, the DUP and UUP, as key operatives of the north/south arrangements, should freeze their involvement until the east/west equilibrium is restored.

It is surely as incongruous as it is complacent to continue to work north/southery while our east/west links are emasculated. Accordingly, I suggest Unionist parties within the Executive should publicly and jointly refuse to operate the north/south arrangements unless and until the Protocol is addressed. How often have we heard about the sanctity of the Belfast Agreement “in all its parts”? Well, does the east/west part not matter? It’s time to put it to the test.

For the Protocol to operate EU laws from time to time have to be adopted by the Assembly - on 8 December 2020 45 such laws were meekly voted through with only Jim Wells and I in opposition. Henceforth, unionist members of the executive should veto any such further provisions coming before the Assembly. Thereby, the implementation of EU law in this part of the UK would be thwarted.

The DAERA minister should direct discontinuance of cooperation of his officials in operating the Irish Sea border checks.

Together these actions would bring matters to a head and demonstrate that unionists will not be willing participants in the destruction of the Union.

I am not suggesting these measures of themselves will deliver us – indeed, a suite of actions are required – but it would be a start and signify a resolution to stand up for what matters most of all: the Union. It would also dispel a perception that those unionists in power care more for their positions than they do for the principles at stake.

Across the unionist community there is a significant loss of morale which requires evidence of a ‘fight back’. We cannot go on as we are, as if nothing has happened.

I, therefore, appeal to the DUP and UUP to act, before it is too late.

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