The harm caused by the Northern Ireland Protocol is becoming ever clearer

Secretary of State Brandon Lewis’s revelation to fellow parliamentarians at Westminster that more than 200 Great Britain-based companies have economically withdrawn from Northern Ireland should be the final wake up call for those in denial over the Protocol.

Those in the political classes who seek to play down the post-Brexit trade deal’s omni-negative impact on Northern Irish society let alone call for its “rigorous implementation” have nowhere to hide.

As well as posing a serious existential threat to the Union with 300 EU laws governing unilaterally over one corner of the United Kingdom there is now irrefutable evidence as to the economic and commercial hardship the Protocol is causing.

Consumers here are being denied the same market choices that their fellow British citizens enjoy.

On supermarket and shop shelves variety is diminishing as suppliers conclude the price in terms of money, time and paper work is too high to bother anymore about Northern Irish customers.

Local businesses which rely on spares and parts imported from England, Scotland and Wales are facing extra financial burdens due to the rising costs of shipping them across the Irish Sea.

As the Protocol sets in it is becoming clearer that the threat it poses is not just an ethereal legal-constitutional wrangle but a real threat to yes the Union itself but also the daily lives of ordinary people who have enjoyed unfettered access until now to the Single British Market and the fifth largest economy in the world.

This is hardly “the best of both worlds” that we were promised although sadly, predictably it is likely those who pushed and pushed for the Protocol will continue to do so. Their obstinancy in the face of the above facts reminds us all about the wise counsel of George Orwell:

“To see what is in front of one’s nose is a constant struggle.”

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