Unionists should refuse to play ball at today's nationalist pantomime at Stormont

Three months later his party leader Naomi Long accused unionists of cynically seeking to “escalate the practical challenges into a constitutional crisis”.

Yet last week the government was arguing before the supreme court that the protocol “disapplies” Article Six of the Act of Union which guarantees freedom of trade between and within the consistent parts of the United Kingdom.

There is no more significant constitutional statute than the Act of Union. The guarantee that it would not go without the express consent of the people of Northern Ireland was a key selling point for pro-agreement unionists. Now we know that, contrary to the claims of the Alliance Party, the Act of Union has been “disapplied” in order to facilitate the protocol, something they called to “rigorous implemented”.

Whatever judgement emerges from the supreme court, no unionist can be in any doubt about what is involved if they operate Stormont and by extension the protocol. Defending the Union and sitting around an executive table implementing the protocol are mutually exclusive.

For months TUV alone argued this.

While Edwin Poots built the border posts TUV called him out. Facing an election, the DUP very belatedly discovered reverse gear and got into line with the unionist grassroots.

Today opinion polls show that despite never-ending propaganda from unionism’s opponents and their ever-willing friends in the media that all our problems will be solved if only Stormont was back, the vast majority of unionist voters do not want to see a return to Stormont unless the protocol is gone.

An agreement which is supposedly built on parallel consent cannot operate in such circumstances.

Yet far from seeking to redress the imbalance or even admit they were wrong, those who falsely claimed that the protocol was not a constitutional issue will gather at Stormont today in an attempt to browbeat unionists back into an executive which would involve them implementing the protocol once again.

The question which unionist politicians who advocate a softer stance on the protocol face is this – what’s the point of devolution if Westminster can legislate away parts of the Act of Union knowing that unionists will issue press releases about it but fundamentally they will settle down after a while because their political class are so sold on Stormont they will do anything to get it back?

At what point in the process do you decide that the constitutional price is too high?

Those who dismiss or minimise the constitutional issues involved and peddle the propaganda that somehow a devolved assembly with no taxation powers will make a difference to our lives would do well to listen to the secretary of state.

When introducing a budget for Northern Ireland in the Commons, Mr Heaton-Harris blamed Stormont ministers for a £660 million overspend. Minister of State Steve Baker pointed to “inadequate executive decision making” when it came to sorting out public finances.

Both might claim that the solution to many of the problems we face is getting Stormont back but just like the Northern Ireland public they know that devolution has repeatedly shown itself to be not up to the task of providing good government for Northern Ireland.

The stark reality, as exposed in the supreme court last week by the government’s own legal arguments, is that our position in the United Kingdom has been seriously undermined.

When, therefore, unionists again refuse to play ball at today's nationalist instigated pantomime at Stormont they will be correct both constitutionally and politically.

It is incumbent on every unionist MLA to do all they can to frustrate the EU’s landgrab and their blatant disregard for our place within the UK.

If Stormont is to have any chance of restoration, then Northern Ireland’s place, both economically and politically, wholly within the UK must be restored. If the price of Stormont continues to be implementation of the Union-dismantling protocol, then its prospects must be non-existent.

• Samuel Morrison is the TUV press officer