The UUP should back the DUP’s belated firm stance on Northern Ireland Protocol

There are possible signs of a UK retreat from its rhetoric on the Northern Ireland Protocol.

There are also sporadic indications of a lack of unionist resolve on the Irish Sea border.

Lord Frost, who is in Northern Ireland, struck a notably more conciliatory tone on the protocol last week. This comes amid intense international pressure on the UK government to press ahead with the internal UK barrier.

It seems less likely now that London will suspend the protocol via Article 16 than it did only days ago.

If so, Britain and the EU can hardly have failed to notice the fact that much of unionism seems disinclined to take a hard stand against the protocol.

In part this is because the complexity of the arrangements help disguise constitutional damage to NI’s place in the UK.

In part it is because of polls which are seized on by europhiles and Irish nationalists to show apparent support for the protocol (in fact if respondents are asked particular questions, they will strongly support positions such as unfettered internal UK trade, made impossible by the protocol).

But it is also because of the differing signals that unionism has sent out about the Irish Sea border.

The DUP was far too quick to talk about the opportunities of the protocol and should have done what it reasonably could not to assist with constructing the travesty of a border.

Now however the party has the right position on both North-South bodies (given that East-West have been trashed) and on making clear it will not accept damage to the Act of Union.

The Ulster Unionist Party has been right on many key issues in recent years, including the pro terrorist direction of legacy and the fact that there is no need for an Irish language act. It was right to attack DUP support for the first version of Boris Johnson’s regulatory border in October 2019.

But it is wrong now to dismiss the firm yet non extreme tactics the DUP is belatedly deploying against the Irish Sea border — one of the only ways to maintain resolve in London.

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