European Union

Peter Robinson said Northern Ireland could have the best of both worlds with seamless access to both the UK and EU market. But if our rules for trading goods are set in Brussels, it will always be costlier and more expensive for mainland companies to send products to this province

Owen Polley: No unionist worth the name would accept being semi detached from GB

TUV Leader Jim Allister speaks during a anti-Northern Ireland Protocol rally in Bangor, County Down. Picture date: Saturday April 30, 2022.

New UK potato rules 'treat NI as a third country’ - Allister

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that having a referendum on an important matter that you may not win 'is fraught with risk'

Varadkar: Border poll not a good idea at the moment because it would be defeated

TUV leader Jim Allister has responded to Steve Baker's comments that a “50% plus one” majority would not be advisable for a vote on Irish unification

Jim Allister comments on 'salami slicing of the Union' without consent

When Leo Varadkar, seen above this year at Windsor Park in Belfast, boasts about a path to Irish unity he is talking about the protocol Foolishly, there are those urging unionism to assist this insidious process by restarting Stormont with Sinn Fein at the wheel

Jim Allister: Ignore Windsor deal spin – it has achieved what the IRA didn't

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar

'Dignified silence may be better': Ian Paisley hits back at Leo Varadkar

Letters to editor

Brexit is the issue that will not go away – it needs to be reversed

Belfast Docks on Sunday as a the new red/green lanes for moving goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland came into operation

As NI gets first taste of red and green lanes, 'fundamental problems' remain

Rishi Sunak is said to be focused on maximising the current deal. (Photo by Hannah McKay - WPA Pool / Getty Images)

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak rules out new Brexit trade talks

Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris and European Commission vice-president Maros Šefčovič pictured during a visit to Youth Action in Belfast. They are pictured meeting Kasey English with her son Kai English Mason. Photo: Kelvin Boyes/Press Eye.

Peace Plus money 'predominantly British largese’: Jim Allister

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris, Irish premier Leo Varadkar and European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic will be joined on Monday for the announcement in Belfast

£1 billion peace funding announcement to be made in Belfast

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and MLA Emma Little-Pengelly speaking to the media following a meeting with the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, Jayne Brady, at Stormont Castle in Belfast. Picture date: Thursday August 17, 2023. Photo: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

DUP having “meaningful engagement” with the UK government - breakthrough elusive

The protocol confirms Northern Ireland as EU territory governed by its trading laws , writes Jim Allister

Jim Allister: The protocol noose is tightening

The port of Larne, which will become a frontier checking point for goods. Although the UK government announced that a green lane ‘removes any sense of a border in the Irish Sea’, such a claim is generally treated with some scepticism. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

Analysis: How green is the Green Lane for goods under the Windsor Framework?

We will all suffer in Northern Ireland after October 1 as a result of the actions of Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak. Picture Leon Neal/PA Wire

Sammy Wilson: Business groups should stop being so cowardly about the framework

TUV leader Jim Allister during the TUV Aprill 2022 Manifesto at the Dunadry Hotel. Photo: Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Under the Northern Ireland Protocol we will never be a full part of the UK: TUV
Any unionist who thinks changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol can be effected from within Stormont is “sadly deluded,” Jim Allister has claimed.

Baroness Kate Hoey has warned against any political "fudge" on the union when it comes to restoring Stormont. Photo: PA

Bryson and Hoey warn of 'fudge' in DUP returning to Stormont

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during a visit to Coca-Cola HBC in Lisburn on February 28, when he oversold the Windsor Framework as being the end of the border in the Irish Sea

Sunak has been exposed in his false claims over Irish Sea border says Allister

Morning View

Editorial: Insulting use of name Malvinas reflects underlying Falklands tensions

The Irish Tricolour on a bonfire. Should the Republic apologise to the families of those who have been murdered due to their past policies and give up their insistence on the hard border in the Irish Sea, only then would any self-respecting unionist treat their flag with anything other than contempt

Letter: The Irish Republic is not, and never has been, a friendly neighbour

The DUP has presented the government and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with an 18-page document containing its proposals for solving the problems with the Windsor Framework

Owen Polley: Comforting words won’t solve trade and sovereignty issues

Boris Johnson betrayed NI, Rishi Sunak falsely spoke of ‘no sense of an Irish Sea border’

Owen Polley: Seven years after Brexit, NI is the region Britain left behind

Flags at the annual Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey, London, earlier this year. Unionism should not be afraid to highlight the benefits of the Union and Commonwealth, writes John Coulter

John Coulter: Commonwealth could be key to undermining Irish unity calls

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is under pressure to take the DUP back into Stormont

Letter: Unionists should not throw in the towel over Northern Ireland Protocol

Boris Johnson leaves Downing Street before resigning as prime minister last year. It has, been extraordinary to see a parliamentary committee try to drive an ex PM out of parliament. Until now such ex leaders, however much despised by their political enemies, were granted a certain respect in retirement. Pic: Aaron Chown/PA Wire

Ben Lowry: I am no Boris fan but he is right to defend elected political power

Latest news from the Department of Health has confirmed drastic cuts that will negatively impact over 60 community and voluntary organisations across the province

Community organisations pushed to 'brink' after funding cuts

Jim Allister at TUV council election manifesto launch

Unionists must 'stand firm' and not return to Stormont: Jim Allister
A generally disappointing council election outcome for unionists should not spark a move towards a Stormont return, Jim Allister has said.

A Belfast company that received a £1.72m grant from the UK Government to develop a permanent magnet recycling plant has recorded record growth in just under a year. Pictured from Ionic Technologies are Fergal Coleman, head of technology, Tracy Baker, finance manager, Thomas Kelly, general manager, Daryl Hinchcliffe, chemist and Andrew Holmes, general manager sales/sourcing

Delight as QUB spinout Ionic Technologies exceeds employment expectations

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and DUP members on the election campaign trail in the Causeway Coast & Glens constituency

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson's plea to voters: 'let us finish the job'

Left to right: President of the European Council Charles Michel, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, sit together during the international conference to mark the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University Belfast

Ursula von der Leyen refers to 'the journey of Ian Paisley' in conference speech

A portrait of the late Lord (David) Trimble by Colin Davidson, which was unveiled weeks before the former UUP leader's death in July 2022. The year before, Trimble wrote: "For the Ulster Unionist Party, of which I was then the leader, there were unpalatable compromises to swallow in 1998. Despite all these compromises, the majority of people in NI endorsed the agreement on the basis that NI’s constitutional position within the UK could not be changed"

Belfast Agreement @25: I feel betrayed by the protocol, wrote David Trimble

Letters to editor

Letter: If we pursue an end the war in Ireland so we should in Nato-Russia war

The UK government has continued to insist is that it has removed any sense of a border in the Irish Sea but has provided scant evidence to substantiate this. Meanwhile the BBC still maintains a graphic that wrongly reads: “Goods destined for NI go into the Green lane meaning they wouldn't have to be checked and would require minimal paperwork"

Peter Summerton letter: We hauliers know there’s a border, as do politicians

UUP Leader Doug Beattie has called for devolution to be restored.

UUP leader Doug Beattie calls for 'devolution to be restored'

The Europe-wide study looked at honey imported into EU countries, and tested the imported samples for impurities.

Study finds 10 UK honey brands are diluted with cheap sugar syrup

TUV leader Jim Allister speaking during the TUV conference in Cookstown, Co Tyrone. Mr Allister criticised the DUP panel on the framework, adding that no unionist leader should need to consult "on the acceptability of such hostile annexation" Photo: Oliver McVeigh/PA Wire

Windsor Framework worse than the protocol, Jim Allister tells his TUV conference

Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie says the “Stormont brake offers Northern Ireland politicians a unique say in EU laws”

Beattie backs Windsor Framework as a first ‘stepping stone’

TUV leader Jim Allister said that to restore Stormont 'is to enforce the Union-dismantling Protocol'

UUP 'fundamentally wrong' in their response to Windsor Framework, insists TUV

Freight lorries travelling through the Port of Belfast.

DUP poised to reject government's Stormont Brake deal with EU , report suggests

An anti-NI Protocol poster at the port of Larne last year. The Windsor Framework can offer “predictability and stability” for businesses in Northern Ireland, according to Germany’s ambassador to the UK

Windsor Framework offers 'predictability and stability for businesses in NI

Freight lorries travelling through the Port of Belfast

Lords to examine 'economic and constitutional implications' of Framework

When Ireland joined Europe there was a loss of sovereignty. But if anything, the EU has ultimately enhanced Irish sovereignty. The Irish state and people now have the resources, and hence the power, to implement social and economic programmes that would have been unthinkable as a small, backward agrarian economy circa 1972. Photo: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Letter: Purism on sovereignty could cost unionists the Union

US President Joe Biden

President Biden welcome, but peace deal in tatters and not much to celebrate

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson in the USA, taken from his own Twitter account

Windsor Framework 'does not solve our fundamental problems' says DUP leader

UK/EU flag pin (by Mick Baker is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0)

'Parliament must not be railroaded into rubber-stamping the Windsor Framework'

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves

PM's Protocol deal ‘shows Brexit can be better says shadow chancellor

Letters to editor

Letter: Dublin turned down good deal from London of joint UK-Ireland Europe bid

Mr Johnson conceded people “want to move on” and sign the deal, adding that “they don’t want any more ructions and I get that, I’ve got to be realistic about it”.

Boris Johnson on NI Protocol: 'It’s all my fault, I fully accept responsibility'

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak holds a Q&A session with local business leaders during a visit to Coca-Cola HBC in Lisburn, Co Antrim in Northern Ireland. Mr Sunak is visiting Northern Ireland to sell the Windsor Framework deal secured with the European Union. Picture date: Tuesday February 28, 2023.

Protocol: Rishi Sunak invokes shooting of PSNI detective in call for devolution

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak holds a Q&A session with local business leaders during a visit to Coca-Cola HBC in Lisburn

Rishi Sunak 'confident' Northern Ireland parties will back new deal with EU

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaking in the House of Commons, London, following the announcement that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have struck a deal over the Northern Ireland Protocol

Rishi Sunak scraps Boris Johnson’s controversial Northern Ireland Protocol Bill

Brits travelling to Spain will not have to fill out the ETIAS form until 2024 as the EU has once again postponed the launch.

EU postpones launch of ETIAS once again to 2024

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson

DUP hails significant progress in protocol deal but concerns remain

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak making a statement about the Northern Ireland (NI) Protocol in the House of Commons in London on February 27, 2023

Prime Minister in NI - “small and limited role” for EU law in NI

TUV Leader Jim Allister

What parts, if any, of the Protocol have been superseded? asks Jim Allister