Goodbye Protocol : It’s time to welcome spring and all its gifts

Instead we’ve been inside, glued to television, wondering what’s going to hit us next in the Protocol saga. Decent dry, even sunny weather at this time of the year is for gardening not politics.

Did most of us understand the Protocol document which promised so much and has ended up leaving many as confused as ever?

I tried hard to get my head around it. I was buoyed up by the Prime Minister assuring us through the media that he wouldn’t agree terms that `fail to deliver for Northern Ireland and the Union’. He believed `the Protocol is creating serious barriers to trade within the UK. I cannot accept this’.

Very few of us could but I’m convinced that when it comes to big issues only politicians understand what they are talking about and that’s the way they want it to remain.

Political speak it is, a language not for the people, the voters. Westminster spin it’s also been called. I like that term. A great name for a garden rose. I might even re-name the nice yellow rose that grows faithfully in my garden every year. It never fails me, unlike politicians who promise us the earth during elections but instantly forget us when elected.

In reality the Protocol saga has been difficult to follow. Take the much talked about red and green lanes `not the same as a border down the Irish sea in future’ declared the Prime Minister on radio.

My nearest and dearest live in EU countries and even now there are restrictions on what I can put in the parcels I send to them for birthdays and Christmas. Could they have a special Christmas lane for families like mine? My last Christmas parcel took three weeks – normally it takes less than two weeks – leaving me with sleepless nights wondering where it was.

Something tells me that not all in future will be as straight forward as the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak assumes. I heard him declaring on one occasion that the green lane would be gone very soon. Good news for commercial traffic but we can only believe that when we see it and nothing happens instantly in politics.

The Prime Minister declares he won’t agree terms that `fail to deliver for Northern Ireland and the Union’. The Protocol he told the Daily Telegraph ` allowed the European Union to impose new laws on Northern Ireland without its people and institutions having any say at all. The existence of this democratic deficit has undermined the sovereignty of Northern Ireland and the very essence of what Brexit is about – control’.

We’ve been let down by British politicians in the past but these were the words of a Prime Minister who has shown a grain of respect for us.

And so we move on to await the next chapter of the story. We have time now to be aware of the lighter evenings as though nature is on our side. Our thoughts can turn to outdoor events and in this household we’re quite excited at the prospect of having another dog. An Animal Shelter is going through the procedure which, hopefully soon, will see us taking up walking again. When our previous dog died and not long afterward our two elderly cats, the house seemed so bleak without them. It was tough and I thought I didn’t want to go through so much sadness again. But now I’m consumed with preparations for a new four-legged arrival. Politics are on the backburner again.