Jamie Bryson: Unionism/loyalism has learnt the lesson to take nothing on trust

This shows no signs of changing, and the impact on political stability and power sharing in Northern Ireland will be immeasurable. The unionist and loyalist community have been hurt and betrayed by the so called Conservative and Unionist party.

A border was put in the Irish Sea in order to satisfy the demands of the Irish Government and nationalists.

The logical fallacy deployed was that the Belfast Agreement, and apparently peace, required there to be no Northern Ireland-Republic of Ireland land border, and so the preservation of peace and the agreement necessitated instead that there be an Irish Sea border.

It seems everyone was blind as to how this would expose the Belfast Agreement as being in substance a nationalist construct. Unionism must give, and nationalism must get. In appointing Steve Baker and Chris Heaton-Harris, Liz Truss gave unionists/loyalists cause to hope that the policy of appeasement was finally coming to an end. In fact, the reverse is true it seems.

Since coming into office messrs Baker and Heaton-Harris have made pandering to Irish nationalism their primary objective. It has been at times pathetic, with the Secretary of State fawning over “fantastic” Simon Coveney and Steve Baker grovelling to the Irish government and EU issuing “apologies”. When will Steve Baker be apologising to the unionist/loyalist community for the Union-subjugating protocol put upon us, which he voted for? Instead, it seems the NIO’s two new ministers have concluded that it is only by being weak on the Union that they will achieve the seeming objective of winning the plaudits of the Irish government and EU.

In return have we seen any apology from Coveney or Varadkar for using the potential of IRA bombs for political leverage? Or for weaponising the Belfast Agreement to launch an effective landgrab to try and subjugate Northern Ireland within an economic united Ireland?

Rather the Irish government are being encouraged by the weakness of Baker and Heaton-Harris, who may think they are playing a clever game, but who are humiliating not only themselves but the peoples of the UK. Are they so gullible that they think if they ask nicely, the coalition hell-bent on tearing Northern Ireland out of the UK will all of a sudden become reasonable?

After the appointments of the two new NIO ministers I remarked to a unionist commentator that it was good that the ERG have now ‘captured the NIO’. The retort was ‘it’s the other way around, the NIO will capture the ERG’.And so it has, it seems, come to pass.

In addition to the fawning over the Irish government, both Baker and Heaton-Harris have been threatening the DUP with an election. Do they think unionism is going to cave in? If there is an election, the unionist position will harden behind the DUP/TUV even further.

All the government will achieve is to wipe out the Ulster Unionist Party, who would be more amenable to implementing the NI Protocol and the kind of pandering which is the wish of the NIO. A renewed mandate for the DUP to hold firm would be no bad thing; not that the strength of their present mandate is in doubt. The vast majority of the unionist community have turned away from power sharing and have finally after 25 years said enough is enough.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and Jim Allister KC are being cheered in the street for their hard-line stand.It needs to be understood by the government that the fawning over the Irish government is not calming unionist resistance, rather it is hardening the resolve to dig in until the complete removal of the Union-subjugating Protocol is secured.

We are being asked to ‘trust’ that they are only playing diplomatic games and as I was told by a senior Conservative on Sunday night “don’t read too much into it”.

Unionism/loyalism will be taking nothing on trust, because the Conservatives cannot be trusted. The shame of 1985 and the Protocol seared that lesson on unionism’s soul.

l Jamie Bryson is chair of Unionist Voice Policy Studies and author of Constitutional Law: The Acts of Union and NI Protocol