by Louise Mclean
For the past couple of years, Northern Ireland has been in limbo, due to the very restrictive rules of the Northern Ireland Protocol signed by Boris Johnson as part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement legislation. Currently the rules which affect trade with mainland Britain are still going through a 'grace period' due to end shortly.
Over the past few months the Assembly in Stormont has been shut down by the Democratic Ulster Party, who refuse to allow it to operate until this has been sorted out. It has been effectively without an executive since February 2022.
The Northern Ireland Protocol Bill was introduced on 13 June 2022 and has just gone through Parliament. It would alter the wording and override parts of the Protocol affecting trade and it has yet to make its difficult passage through the pro-EU House of Lords. It will not radically change the problems that need solving.
Brandon Lewis, the Northern Secretary, said that the Bill was designed to make the free flow of goods as easy between Northern Ireland and Britain, 'as from Great Yarmouth to Carlisle'. Right now the problems are so bad, that many companies on mainland Britain are simply no longer sending their goods there, due to massive EU bureaucracy and paperwork.
Yesterday Lord David Trimble died. He had served as the First Minister of Northern Ireland and helped draft the Belfast Agreement (or Good Friday Agreement) in 1998, for which he received the Nobel Prize.
Former Brexit Party MEP, Ben Habib has been involved in a lawsuit to overturn the Northern Ireland Protocol which he and Lord Trimble, who was a co-litigant, felt was a breach of the Belfast Agreement. He says that there should have been cross community consent for the Protocol but this was in fact recently removed from the Northern Ireland Act 1998!
Top politicians have all praised Lord Trimble and sent their condolences but many such as Tony Blair, being Europhiles, are not concerned that Northern Ireland remains under the power of the European Union, while the Protocol is in force.
In fact Nancy Pelosi came over recently to warn that there would be no trade deal with the USA if the Northern Ireland Protocol was changed in any way. She does seem to rather exceed her role as Speaker of the US House of Representatives!
With Britain currently choosing its next Prime Minister, it is generally felt that top candidate, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, would be best placed to deal with the Northern Ireland problem because she brought forward the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill.
Northern Ireland has been a part of the United Kingdom since 1801. Without fixing the problems with trade as soon as possible, Northern Ireland is effectively still operating inside the European Union's Single Market. While the rest of Britain left the European Union in January 2020 with the Brexit legislation, Northern Ireland was left behind and remains still firmly inside the EU!
