The prime minister might further soften on the Northern Ireland Protocol due to his weak political position

For more than a month, the UK has been striking a softer tone on the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Almost no serious observer now things that Article 16 will be triggered to suspend it.

The European Union has become increasingly confident in return, and is pretending to be increasingly generous. In fact it is merely softening its until now robust demands for strict implementation of the Irish Sea border.

Its revised goal seems to be a simple one — to maintain the constitutional gains of the protocol.

Those who say that the internal UK barrier has little or no such constitutional implications are contradicted by the government itself, which was until recently emphasising that the protocol was signed in 2019 under duress. Now one of its latter flagship demands for reform, the role of the European Court in Northern Ireland, is being diluted.

It is very good to see the DUP speaking out clearly on what is happening, rather than playing it down.

The EU relaxation of its rules on medicines, after warnings from respected pharmaceutical leaders, in fact highlights the appalling nature of the protocol and the obstacle it has created on elementary internal national movements.

As a letter writer notes opposite, Boris Johnson’s premiership is in an increasingly perilous place after multiple debacles and now the dramatic North Shropshire seat loss.

This is a time for unionists to continue to maintain a calm but strongly-argued and combined front against the protocol.

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