The new Irish Sea border is a disaster and a betrayal

There would be an exhaustive, expensive formal investigation into how Northern Ireland was cut adrift from the UK internal market — an almost unthinkable outcome that no other major nation state would accept for an integral part of its territory.

The probe would look at the role of politicians and officials in this fiasco and examine why there was no outcry from business, why the argument was so little made on the media, and why there was no intellectual hinterland for people who want an elementary thing: the nation to be one economic unit.

But there will be no inquiry because, nationally, a UK government with a safe parliamentary majority has imposed this, and because locally a majority of Stormont MLAs back it.

Instead we are left with almost meaningless assurances from UK ministers, despite their own leader, the prime minister, having been shown to have been talking nonsense in his pledges that there would be no friction in the Irish Sea.

To be clear, yesterday’s government paper conceded that there will be a barrier for trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It will almost certainly be much bigger than the government says, because this is only an opening gambit with the EU.

The simple fact is that the UK decided that pretty much all goods will stay aligned to EU standards, which probably means extensive checks, and that many goods passing from GB to NI will be subject to tariffs. Even though some of this will be refundable, if it is not passing on to the Republic, it will mean at the least a massive increase in paperwork.

And the EU says NI to GB movements will need exit declarations. Yet, in a damning reflection of unionist morale, as is now the norm it was only Jim Allister yesterday who called this major move away from being an unfettered part of the UK internal market the betrayal that it most assuredly is.