Letter: Ben Habib and Advance UK offer unionists a rare opportunity to participate in UK‑wide patriotic political movement
A letter from Kirk McDowell:
Unionists who have yearned for the full integration of Northern Ireland into the United Kingdom have known many false dawns.
The prospect of Ben Habib’s Advance UK contesting elections in Northern Ireland has already been dismissed by some as yet another. Yet such scepticism may prove to be a premature misjudgment.
Unionism’s only long‑term hope of removing the Irish Sea border depends on electing a majority in Westminster willing to confront both the EU and the republican movement over the issue.
Reform MPs may offer sympathetic words, but their party has made no effort to register in the Province. Worse still, these assurances come from former Conservative MPs who previously voted to impose the sea border, despite earlier promises that they would never support partitioning the UK.
Ben Habib stands in stark contrast. He has been unwavering in his opposition to the Irish Sea border. He was a key financial backer of the legal challenge to the NI Protocol brought alongside Jim Allister and Baroness Hoey.
He remains the only mainland media commentator who consistently highlights the injustices of the sea border and the national embarrassment it represents for the UK.
His stance has been more consistent than that of the DUP, who continue to downplay the constitutional significance of the NI Protocol in an effort to retain office.
As long as unionism continues to administer EU directives through devolution, no government in Westminster, including any future Reform administration, will consider it expedient to legislate for the removal of the sea border.
For this reason, the immediate goal of anti‑protocol campaigners must be to expose the DUP’s duplicity. But the long‑term strategy must be to build a genuinely UK‑wide patriotic political movement whose priority is to restore the sovereignty of the United Kingdom. Advance UK offers unionists a rare opportunity to participate in such a cause.
It could also attract a new generation of capable unionist activists who have previously avoided the parochialism associated with the established local parties. A pact with the TUV would allow both parties to concentrate their limited resources on key constituencies in future elections.
Unionism’s political position has little room left to weaken short of outright absorption into an all‑Ireland state. Given that reality, unionists have strong reason to take seriously Ben Habib’s call for a UK‑wide movement dedicated to defending the nation’s integrity and its right to self‑government.
Kirk McDowell, Belfast BT5