Jim Allister: News Letter editorial highlights the dire Irish Sea border and asks the right questions of the DUP

Yesterday morning’s News Letter editorial rightly spells out the dire situation in which Northern Ireland finds itself, writes JIM ALLISTER QC.
News Letter front page of yesterday, Wednesday February 3 2021, which led with an editorial fiercely criticising the NI ProtocolNews Letter front page of yesterday, Wednesday February 3 2021, which led with an editorial fiercely criticising the NI Protocol
News Letter front page of yesterday, Wednesday February 3 2021, which led with an editorial fiercely criticising the NI Protocol

(The editorial can be read here: ‘Protocol an even bigger disaster than we feared,’ February 3)

It is but right to highlight the seriously detrimental impact of the protocol both on Northern Ireland’s constitutional position and on businesses across the Province.

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Like the News Letter I welcome the DUP’s sudden change of tone on the protocol.

Letter to the editorLetter to the editor
Letter to the editor

Like the News Letter I question why it was so long in coming.

Like the News Letter I question what exactly it means in important respects.

Do the DUP now accept that they were wrong to vote in favour of legislation which banned British soil from Northern Ireland? Are they pledging not to repeat such folly in the future?

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What do the DUP mean when they say North-South relations are “impacted”? Will the North/South arrangements of the Belfast Agreement be suspended until such times as the protocol is gone?

That sort of action is likely to make people sit up and take notice. Signing an e-petition is not.

Yesterday in the assembly DUP Agriculture Minister Gordon Lyons told me that it was his understanding that if his department declines to operate the checks no one else can.

Here too is an obvious point of pressure.

The News Letter quite rightly asks why safeguards were not secured in January last year as part of the deal to restore Stormont.

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One could go on to ask why the DUP leader signed a joint letter with Martin McGuinness in 2016 asking for Northern Ireland to be treated differently.

Or why in 2019 the DUP accepted a regulatory border in the Irish Sea.

So mistakes have been made. It is far from clear to me, or wider unionism, that that has been recognised or what exactly the DUP plan going forward is.

However, if the DUP are serious about getting rid of the protocol — not getting longer lead in periods or derogations — and are prepared to take the robust, sustained political action which is necessary they will not find my support wanting.

What does robust, sustained political action look like?

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It means unionist involvement in the Belfast Agreement North/South arrangements is frozen.

It means unionists will veto all EU laws and never again permit them to be adopted by the assembly.

It means that the agriculture minister will not have his officials back operating the Irish Sea border.

If all that is done then unionism can say that it did all it could to disrupt a pernicious protocol which is cyanide to the Union.

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If, however, this becomes another ‘graduated response’ then I am afraid it falls far short from the effort needed to defeat the most serious threat to Northern Ireland’s constitutional positon in my lifetime.

Jim Allister QC, North Antrim MLA, Stormont

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