Let us hope that London rejects entirely US pressure on the Northern Ireland Protocol

In April 2019, two of the most powerful politicians in the United States visited Northern Ireland to scold the United Kingdom.

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Richard Neal crossed the border on their mission to point out the wrongs of Brexit and their view that there must be no hardening of the Irish land border.

At that time, Sinn Fein had – disgracefully – been allowed to collapse Stormont, ostensibly over the Cash for Ash scandal, and then to keep it down for what was by then already more than two years, until they got their long-term sectarian goal of an Irish language act.

But Ms Pelosi and Mr Neal had little to say about such vandalism, and instead lectured the government for allegedly threatening the 1998 Belfast Agreement. That deal had set up mandatory coalition, which by 2019 had been damaged by SF.

Ms Pelosi, as speaker of the House of Representatives, is the third most senior US politician, and next in line after the vice president to assume the presidency if a vacancy emerges. Mr Neal is chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, one of the most powerful bodies in the United States.

Now he is back on an all island tour, this time with less famous, but supposedly bipartisan, politicians who seem similarly biased in their anti British approach to NI.

The travelling group is delighting Sinn Fein, and showing an instinctive disregard for unionists, with their repeated ‘warnings’ about London’s threat to peace due to its plans to act unilaterally on rectifying the Northern Ireland Protocol.

On pages 4 and 5 we report on the various manifestations of the cross unionist distrust that there is of this high minded delegation. In particular it is gratifying to read the victim Kenny Donaldson flag up the hypocrisy of representatives of a country, the US, that is so militant towards any hint of terror talking about threats to peace in a part of the world where American funds to the IRA caused death and destruction. Let’s hope London resists entirely such American pressure.

• Other comment articles:

• Owen Polley May 23: Many culprits are to blame for Irish Sea border

• DUP: The secretary of state’s move on abortion is a bad day for Northern Ireland

• Ben Lowry May 21: There’s been a shift in London towards sympathy for NI over protocol

• Ben Lowry May 21: I do love Bangor, but it is hard to think of it as a city

• John Redwood May 20: The government must act soon over Protocol – NI unionists want their country back

• Owen Polley May 19: Expect full-tilt lies and hysteria in weeks ahead over Protocol

• Ben Habib May 18: There isn’t even a real threat of unilateral action on protocol

• Jim Allister May 17: Boris Johnson flew into NI with weak message on the protocol

• Ruth Dudley Edwards May 17: Thank you Lithuania for pursuing Omagh bomber

• Owen Polley May 16: Getting rid of the protocol is more important than the return of Stormont

• Henry McDonald May 14: Will Boris Johnson deliver beyond his rhetoric?