Northern Ireland Protocol

Alexander Kinnear, parliamentary officer for the Ulster Farmers' Union, giving evidence to the House of Lords European Affairs sub-committee on the Windsor Framework. Photo: House of Lords/UK Parliament/PA Wire

UK-EU divergence putting some farming sectors in NI at risk, peers are told

The door of No10 Downing Street

No10’s Irish flag gaffe branded a ‘gross insult’ by the TUV

No10 Downing Street

Downing Street criticised over Irish flag on post about Northern Ireland

A protest sign against EU trade restrictions on goods coming into NI from GB last year at the port of Larne. The Windsor Framework did not correct an “underlying mistake” in the Northern Ireland Protocol, a Westminster committee has heard.
Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

Windsor Framework did not correct ‘mistake’ in protocol, peers told

If the simple majority clause of the Belfast Agreement has to be respected, as we are so often told, then so too should the secretary of state’s right to make a decision on any border poll without setting out prior conditions

Owen Polley: UK would be stupid to set out the criteria for a border poll

Short of a miracle the Irish Sea border will stay, perhaps the greatest reverse in Northern Ireland’s place in the UK since its creation. Irreparable change has been imposed on NI so that nationalists can continue to pretend there’s no land frontier

Owen Polley: No hype or appeals for ‘optimism’ will alter fact of sea border

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has told his party faithful that he wants to see a deal from Government which restores Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market and which respects the province's place within the union. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Donaldson: Government must restore NI in UK internal market

DUP Leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson wrote a letter to the editor, criticising an editorial in the News Letter on the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Photo: Presseye/Stephen Hamilton

TUV challenges Jeffrey after ‘letter to editor’ on Protocol

"I still believe in devolution," write Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP, pictured during his speech at the DUP annual conference in Belfast on October 14. "We have a record of saying yes, and leading from the front, when it’s right to do so" Photo: Presseye/Stephen Hamilton

DUP leader: The News Letter might concede defeat, but we will not do so

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson speaking outside Brownlow House after a meeting of the DUP's ruling executive in Lurgan on Thursday. He faces a dilemma about his party’s tactics. If the DUP’s conclusion is that the longer a boycott continues without a positive outcome, the more it erodes people’s confidence in Northern Ireland, then it should explain it honestly. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA

Owen Polley: DUP is being asked to change direction just as border hardens

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

TUV leader Jim Allister

TUV takes out full page adverts about the NI Protocol

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson (left) and East Belfast MP Gavin Robinson speak to media in the Great Hall at Parliament Buildings at Stormont in Belfast, after meeting Northern Ireland shadow secretary Hilary Benn at Parliament Buildings at Stormont for talks

DUP gathering will deal with ‘routine business’ – Sir Jeffrey Donaldson

Jamie Bryson told the leaders of the DUP, UUP and TUV that a return to Stormont would 'ignite significant instability and, without any doubt, precipitate a return to mass street protests'

Loyalists will hold mass street protests if Stormont returns, warns Jamie Bryson

The new red and green lanes were introduced on Sunday. Northern Ireland will soon find out whether the Windsor Framework causes immediate disruption to businesses, or whether these effects can be delayed or disguised for a while longer

Owen Polley: Now the flaws of the Windsor Framework will become all too apparent

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson with colleague Gavin Robinson MP and Emma Little Pengelly MLA outside Stormont Castle earlier this year. Sir Jeffrey says . Pic: David Young/PA Wire

DUP won't be bullied into arrangements that damage NI's place in UK: Donaldson
The DUP leader appears today to rule out a swift return to Stormont in a hard-hitting article about the Irish Sea border.

Unionists gather at the front gates of Stormont on January 31 2020 to celebrate the UK leaving the EU. But they were also celebrating what was possibly a small step towards a united Ireland – certainly the biggest such move since 1921. Pic Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Ben Lowry: After all the twists and turns, a full Irish Sea border is here

The Northern Ireland Protocol came into operation at the start of 2021 and it saw an increase in checks on goods. It created various frictions relating to the movement of goods from GB to NI.

Esmond Birnie: Claim that NI could be UK’s Hong Kong is questionable

The Framework means that grace periods have been abandoned and the cost of using the green lane is prohibitive for anyone other than the largest of exporters, writes Kate Hoey

Letter: Framework has cemented in the Irish Sea border

The Assembly Chamber at Parliament Buildings. ‘Rigorous implementers’ of the NI Protocol are in the majority at Stormont and therefore a return of the powersharing executive would 'inevitably be an aid, not an obstacle, to protocol rule', writes Jim Allister

Letter: Seven reasons why Stormont cannot return while the protocol remains

Unionists should keep up their opposition to the NI Protocol and seek an interim period of direct rule rather than return to powersharing at Stormont where they would be implementing their own destruction

Letter: Bleak times but unionists must keep up protocol opposition

Some claim the protocol has helped Northern Ireland’s economy but over the more recent two+ years, those coinciding with NI’s unique post-Brexit trading arrangements (January 2021+), NI growth has lagged the UK average, writes Dr Esmond Birnie

Esmond Birnie: It's wrong to say NI economy is outgrowing the UK average

Perhaps Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and Doug Beattie can explain how unionism benefits by establishing a Stormont executive that is obligated to enact NI Protocol legislation that is incompatible with the Act of Union?

Letter: DUP and UUP seem focused on getting back with Sinn Fein

There is no loyalist voice on the Policing Board, says David Campbell. Remedying this situation would be part of the 'long list of requirements needed to restore unionist confidence in the Northern Ireland justice system'

David Campbell: Now is the time to correct imbalance in justice system

Morning View

Editorial: Asda labels move a taste of the looming Irish Sea border

The DUP and UUP have expressed concern after Asda became the first supermarket in NI to introduce 'Not for EU' labelling on food as required under the Windsor Framework.

Unionist concern as Asda begins ‘Protocol labelling’ of food

An opinion poll has suggested that support among unionist voters for UUP leader Doug Beattie (pictured) is only half that of DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and almost half that for TUV leader Jim Allister. Picture date: Friday February 17, 2023.

Unionist support for Beattie only half of that for Sir Jeffrey, claims new poll
An opinion poll has suggested that support among unionist voters for UUP leader Doug Beattie is only half that of DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson – and almost half that for TUV leader Jim Allister.

The NIO having been pushing a delusion that Stormont is essential to resolving budgetary pressures, when almost the reverse is true. An ongoing absence of the flawed devolutionary structures is a small sacrifice to stop the Irish Sea border

David Hoey: DUP doesn't have a death wish so will need to stand firm on Stormont

It is useful that we are not part of a continental land mass. We are economically and technologically advanced, and militarily strong. We speak English and have important allies. We have great universities and motivated people. We are generous with our aid to others

Letter: If we can keep the UK intact it could be a beacon for the rest of world

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

MLAs pictured in the assembly chamber in Stormont in May last year. The House of Lords committee's report on the Windsor Framework underlines the importance of restoring devolution, the UK government has said. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Stormont will have say on Irish Sea trade so DUP needs to return says government

The framework offered almost no sign that the EU is easing up on its ambitions to control our economy by imposing barriers between NI and the rest of the UK. The Lords report recorded the problems with the framework, rather than reflecting an increasingly thread-bare received wisdom that the framework is good. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye

Owen Polley: It will soon be impossible to ignore the Windsor Framework's flaws

Mark Tait, director of Target Transport in Randalstown, welcomed the House of Lords report which highlighted significant problems for haulage companies which the Windsor Framework failed to resolve.

'Report shows Framework leaves us far worse off'

UUP leader Doug Beattie said the House of Lords report on the Windsor Framework agreed that the boycott of Stormont had achieved nothing.

Beattie ‘surrendering’ over changing Windsor Framework

The NIO having been pushing a delusion that Stormont is essential to resolving budgetary pressures, when almost the reverse is true. An ongoing absence of the flawed devolutionary structures is a small sacrifice to stop the Irish Sea border

Letter: It is better to be without Stormont than to implement the NI Protocol

MLAs have been allowed to avoid taking hard decisions on, for example, water charges

Letter: Direct rule is NI’s best chance of functioning government

The Twelfth in Portadown last week. The Orange is a key part of culture but not to all unionist tastes, so they should not fall into the nationalist trap of implying that unionist concerns are primarily cultural rather than political so that cultural trinkets might suffice to lure them into an-all Ireland

Owen Polley: Unionists want to be in UK, not just have their culture recognised

TUV leader Jim Allister. Photo: Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pic Colm Lenaghan/ Pacemaker

Twelfth 2023: Protocol has succeeded where IRA failed

Lorries and goods being check at the Department of Agriculture

'Ballot box counts more than opinion polls on Northern Ireland Protocol': DUP

Letters to editor

Letter: UK government seems to be silent on mutual enforcement proposal

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

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said the mutual enforcement of trade laws merits ‘serious and sustained consideration’

DUP: Plan to replace Windsor Framework 'merits serious consideration'

Lorries and goods being check at the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs checking facility in Belfast Port.

Protocol remains a 'constitutional obscenity' despite claims of progress: TUV

Letters to editor

Letter: Unionists should back Barnier plan of UK returning to European Community

Gavin Robinson, DUP Deputy Leader.

DUP's Protocol campaign will not be derailed by Tory 'psychodrama'

Could artificial intelligence in the form of Chat GPT offer any help in solving the Stormont deadlock? Could it offer the UK, EU and DUP workable solutions to resolve concerns with the Windsor Framework? Image: Thierry Ehrmann - courtesy of La Demeure du Chaos / Abodeofchaos - Organ Museum of Contemporary Art

How would AI solve the Stormont deadlock?

A No Entry sign at Parliament Buildings at Stormont, Belfast

'DUP proved others wrong on protocol, but more time is needed to finish job'

The Windsor Framework is no solution to the Northern Ireland Protocol. The red / green lanes do not ameliorate the trade barrier with Great Britain. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

Ben Habib: The Irish Sea border disaster is here to stay, so let’s cut tax in NI

It is undemocratic that most of the United Kingdom can’t vote on its possible dissolution. Creating an unprecedented right for Scotland or Northern Ireland to secede without any say for the rest of the country was a constitutional wrong-turn

Jamie Bryson: The future of Northern Ireland should be a matter for all the UK

Stormont has been down for 16 months but unionist voters have endorsed that. Calling for direct rule may reap rewards for the DUP if they are prepared to sacrifice salaries

Letter: The DUP must stand firm and refuse to nominate Stormont ministers

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson speaking to the media outside Stormont with party MPs and MLAs, where he said his party's result in the local government elections gave him a renewed mandate to seek solutions to the NI Protocol.

Election results give DUP a 'renewed mandate' for boycott of Stormont

Northern Ireland Fish Producers Organisation CEO Harry Wick says EU promises not to enforce strict regulations on NI trawlers cannot last - and that the Windsor Framework did nothing to resolve the problem.

'EU promise not to enforce WF rules on NI trawlers won't last'

Counting underway at the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly Election

Election 2023: Back us say political leaders, as Northern Ireland heads to polls

James Cleverly in the Lords committee today

Re-opening Windsor Framework talks with EU 'could leave UK with worse deal'

UUP leader Doug Beattie during the party's local government manifesto 2023 launch at the Linen Hall Library, Belfast. Photo: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

UUP manifesto launch: council election a choice between delivery or dysfunction