If the Northern Ireland Protocol is allowed to stay, it will show that the Ulster British have been jettisoned

The UK government is currently negotiating with the EU over operation of the NI Protocol aspect of the UK’s Brexit Withdrawal Agreement; a de facto recognition of EU sovereignty over Ulster which so far has seen the EU dictate the internal trading arrangements of the UK.

Two ludicrous arguments are disingenuously used to justify this. Firstly, that importation of goods from Great Britain, which fully comply with EU regulations and have no danger of leaving NI, might jeopardise the hallowed single market.

Secondly, that customs operations that operate perfectly efficiently along the 1,000 mile border between Sweden and Norway would so undermine the entire sanctity of the Belfast Agreement that Irish aggression and violence against Ulster would be fully justified.

Resultant deep felt unionist fears over our political economic and cultural identity have been triumphantly trivialised by Irish nationalists with ill concealed glee, and quips to buy your sausages from somewhere else.

This is hardly surprising coming from Irish fascists who can shamelessly go cap in hand for ‘illegal power grabs from the people of the island’ to Westminster to fulfil its wishlist of rights based demands whenever it suits (whilst at the same time denying the Ulster British a centenary stone or rose, never mind the very reasonable request for the option of a UK driving license with the union flag etc.)

Unionists have been manoeuvred into a weak position; accept power sharing and constant appeasement of Irish nationalism, or face direct rule with increased Irish interference.

This has resulted in the salami slicing of British economic, cultural and political sovereignty from Ulster. In the political equation of English liberalism, Scots nationalism, Ireland, the EU and USA versus a few Ulster Prods who nobody likes, it would appear the math is not difficult.

Johnson’s Conservative and Unionist government has calculated that some unionists are more equal than others. Clearly forging seminal moments in the UK’s glorious revolution and constitutional settlement at the Siege of Derry and the Boyne, and standing with the UK through two World Wars, at the Somme, the Blitz, Battle of the Atlantic, Normandy etc. have been forgotten.

However the decision faced now by the Johnson government is more far reaching and fundamental, not just to Ulster but the whole UK.

The UK government’s action on the Protocol will be a defining moment in history. To not act decisively to protect the internal UK free market, the unfettered supply of British goods produced by British companies, owned by British share-holders, to British citizens will demonstrate that the Withdrawal Agreement was a pyrrhic, short term political gain.

To not protect British citizens against bullying poseurs like Merkel, Macron and Martin will demonstrate that England’s interest comes before that of the UK and its integrity as a whole. This will be ruthlessly exploited by Scots and Welsh nationalists.

History will judge Johnson by his actions in the coming days. He can be the Chamberlain of the 21st century and be bossed around on the internal trade arrangements of the UK, appeasing her enemies; or he can be a new Churchill and gain world respect by standing up to bullies and doing the honourable thing by his own people.

To not act against the protocol will demonstrate to the world how weak the once mighty UK has become, and how, in the long run, Napoleonic, Bismarkian and Hitlerian dreams of hegemony in Europe have been achieved, with British sacrifice in two world wars wasted.

If the protocol remains in place, it should demonstrate to the Ulster British that we have been jettisoned. Appropriate action will sadly necessitate the collapse of Stormont, and further mobilisation until Ulster’s inalienable right to self determination and our position in the UK is fully restored.

BJ Kennedy, Belfast BT15

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