Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP’s leader at Westminster, said: “I’m afraid the genie is out of the bottle and that genie is that the EU clearly sees the Northern Ireland protocol as a stick to beat the UK with…
Even if Brussels’ decision to trigger the clause turns out to have been a simple technical error made by stressed officials, the EU has now made it clear that the protocol can be undermined with a simple press release, and given fuel to those who want it gone for good. Enemies of the Brexit deal are newly emboldened in their campaign.
According to your version of 'how stuff happens', @Clavinova, Northern Ireland history began in January 2021.
Donaldson was talking about himself and his political cronies when he referred to those who want the GFA done away with, in case you hadn't understood. They have devoted themselves wholeheartedly to that aim, and to the demolition of the Protocol since it was first announced.
Brace yourself - I am about to C&P like a boss:
sluggerotoole.com/2021/02/06/unionisms-approach-to-the-ni-protocol-is-disappointing-but-not-surprising/
What I have seen in recent days from the Ulster Unionists and the DUP brings me back to the heady days of the 2012 flag protests that erupted at Belfast City Hall and spread across Northern Ireland. For what seemed like a long time the political institutions here were at their most vulnerable (they did come falling down less than five years later for different reasons, but the rot began here). Loyalists felt empowered and emboldened as their political leaders were now following them. The airwaves of the BBC and local broadcasters were filled with the voices of disenfranchised ‘dissident’ Unionists who saw an opportunity to claw back some of the power they felt they had lost in the years following the Good Friday Agreement and feet were being put down all across the board to fight back against ‘Pan-Nationalism’ – whatever that is.
I’ve seen this again in the actions and reactions of the DUP and UUP, and to a lesser extent the TUV (If there’s one thing they actually do agree with, please let me know in the comments) regarding the NI Protocol. Granted, the actions of the EU Commission in threatening to invoke Article 16 over COVID vaccines was reprehensible, and was quickly walked back when they realised they had massively underestimated the opposition of the UK, Irish and N.Irish governments. Very few things seem to unite Michelle O’Neill and Jamie Bryson but the EU managed it. What they did was create an opportunity for hard Brexiteers to seize on, a shining example of the bureaucratic overreach they had railed against in 2016, by foreign powers in Brussels. Businesses are suffering due to the controls and barriers put in place by the NI Protocol, and its important that their voices are heard – but let’s be very clear here – the DUP and UUP own this mess, and they can’t ride both horses.
June this year will mark five years since the referendum on the UK’s EU membership took place, and in that time the NI Protocol is the most workable solution that most of the key players could agree to, and sell to their bases. So what’s the alternative? No, really, I’m asking.
Arlene Foster is leading the charge against the border in the Irish Sea (you know, the one that Boris said would never happen) and the Ulster Unionists, as predicted, are falling in behind her and the DUP. Tensions are simmering, the offices of elected reps from all sides have been tarred with intimidating graffiti, threats seemingly issued to inspection staff at the Port of Larne, Loyalist paramilitary spokespeople being brought onto BBC Radio Ulster to talk about what they might do if the NI Protocol isn’t rejigged in their favour. More heat than light, which is what many of us have come to expect now from the DUP when they oppose things that are beyond their control.
Except this wasn’t beyond their control. The DUP had a golden opportunity after the 2017 Westminster elections to force the British Government into accepting a softer Brexit, one that they could proudly stand over and call their own. Arlene et al would have been able to take a victory lap – that a small political party from a small corner of Europe had managed to give the EU27 a bloody nose and grasp an opportunity that no political movement from Northern Ireland had ever had, and probably would never get again. But they blew it – the DUP’s support has plummeted over the NI Protocol, something that may have been entirely avoided if they had been able to decide what kind of Brexit they wanted and championed it, rather than taking every possible opportunity to destroy whatever concessions Theresa May was able to squeeze from Europe.
And now they want their cake and to eat it – they want to be able to show that this is not a mess of their making, and that they can somehow change the cards in their deck and inevitably paint it as some kind of massive conspiracy against them and their supporters when it fails. Boris Johnston and the UK Government, with an 80 seat majority in Westminster, has absolutely no interest in making Brexit work for Northern Ireland if it means England has an easier time of it. The chest beating and sabre-rattling from mainstream Unionists is disappointing, but not at all unexpected at this point. I fear that lessons have not been learned from 2012, and this race to the bottom to determine what is legitimate constitutional politics will end in disaster for this place, for its people, and our fragile institutions.