Protocol’s open wound in NI politics is turning gangrenous

The secretary of state has invited the five main parties to meet him today. Yet there remains no indication that the government has either the requisite vision or urgency in addressing the protocol hiatus. The EU has yet to indicate preparedness to contemplate removal of the protocol’s restrictions on the UK’s internal market.

Recently the government minister Lord Benyon wrote that the government is “working intensively” to put in place alternative arrangements for the protocol. As part of these the government appears to intend to construct permanent border infrastructure at Northern Ireland ports. Signalling such an intention evidences a preparedness to settle for mere cosmetic change and consequently a negotiating mindset that is defeated from the outset. As a side issue - why should the UK meet any expense incurred by a system designed to impede its internal trade?

The challenge presented by the protocol remains unchanged. The Good Friday Agreement was secured through providing a guarantee of no constitutional change without consent. That guarantee persuaded many people in Northern Ireland to accept the agreement – often against their better judgement. It thereby engineered an environment in which political parties, whose aspirations were not only in conflict but mutually exclusive, were able to find some basis for working together no matter how unstable.

The protocol removed all that. There remains no basis on which even an unstable administration can be constructed. The protocol has created an open wound in the body politic of Northern Ireland that is rapidly turning gangrenous.

The government claims to have “got Brexit done”. Most people on the mainland are apolitical and accept at face value this most dubious assertion. For people in Northern Ireland however this statement is nothing less than an insult. Only through extreme casuistry can Brexit be said to have been “done” in Northern Ireland. Whilst no longer part of the EU, what has been imposed is at best BRINO – Brexit In Name Only. In reality, however, the outcome is incalculably worse. The province remains subject to EU diktat imposing their rules on a people no longer their subjects.

At no stage has our government even hinted at an apology for the invidious position in which the province finds itself. I doubt any member of the government has even considered that an apology might be a start on the road to remediation!

The government fails to grasp that the protocol is itself the problem. Revised arrangements might aspire to make the protocol less toxic – but will still undermine the continued existence of the United Kingdom. Making an unnecessary process less intrusive can never lead to toleration of intrusions that should never have been inflicted.

Mere “revised arrangements” won’t meet even one of the seven tests set out by the DUP. The protocol derived from a false premise that Northern Ireland needed to be cut off from the UK single market in order to placate the Irish distaste of the international border between the UK and Ireland. Yet this border already operated without objection for currency and settlement of contractual obligations.

The Irish taoiseach claims to now “understand” unionist concerns over the protocol. It is not credible that an intelligent man did not appreciate these when advocating for the protocol in 2019. Being a cynical lawyer – I believe that his then focus was on inflicting damage on the UK as punishment for leaving the EU, with instability of political institutions in Northern Ireland regarded as collateral damage. Claiming “understanding” makes a favourable soundbite, but through what it omits, negates any intention to address the problem.

Irish propensity to demonstrate a hostile mindset towards their neighbours is fundamentally unchanged though its expression may have mellowed. The protocol manifests old attitudes better forgotten.

Reasonable people seek neighbourly relations between Belfast and Dublin. These can never come about whilst the Irish government is perceived as responsible for constitutional arrangements anathema to the British community.

A robust government policy is required, not tinkering around the edges or pursuit of arbitrary deadlines. It is irrelevant whether President Biden visits Belfast or not. Remember he is no friend of Northern Ireland. I live in hope rather than expectation.

Jeremy Burchill, North Yorkshire

(Former Ulster Unionist Assembly Member 1982-86 for East Belfast)