Will Parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol be Scrapped?

by Louise Mclean

Northern Ireland Parliament

In 2019 Boris Johnson accepted the Northern Ireland Protocol as being part of the Brexit legislation, eventually signing it into effect in January 2020.  While the rest of Britain left the EU, the Protocol meant Northern Ireland was left behind in the Single Market and under European Union law.  Here Lord David Frost explains the full history of the Protocol.

https://www.briefingsforbritain.co.uk/the-northern-ireland-protocol-how-we-got-here-and-what-should-happen-now/

In order to avoid a hard border between the North and South of Ireland, a customs border had to be created in the Irish Sea between Britain.  This has been totally unacceptable to the majority of people in NI, making goods coming from Britain too expensive to be exported, with many UK companies ceasing to export altogether.

So since Britain left in January 2020 the people of Northern Ireland have been effectively trapped in the European Union's Single Market.

As mentioned in a previous post, there seems to be a genuine push to create a United Ireland of the North and South, all of which will be in the European Union, with the South - Republic of Ireland being already in it.

This goes against the 1800 Act of the Union, which was the legal basis for incorporating Northern Ireland into the United Kingdom. There has been other legislation since then and more especially the Belfast Good Friday Agreement in 1998 (under Tony Blair's Government), which gives the people of NI a final say as to its future, in a referendum.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/belfast-accord-fundamentally-alters-nature-of-north-s-place-in-the-union-1.150356

The above link explains the legislation and how it changed in 1973, (just after Britain joined the European Union), making the people of Northern Ireland sovereign and entitled to a vote if they want to break away from Britain, which would happen if the whole of Ireland were united. This may have laid the foundation for a United Ireland under the European Union.

The recent election which was held in Northern Ireland was won for the first time by the Republican Sinn Fein party, making it the largest party in the Stormont Assembly. Sinn Fein originated in the South of Ireland and historically fought for a united Ireland.

Therefore the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which was previously the leading party, now takes on the role of Deputy First Minister.  The two parties did not work well together in the past and Sinn Fein are very pro the European Union.

Sinn Fein have already announced that they do not want to scrap the Northern Ireland Protocol and are talking of giving the Northern Irish people a referendum for a United Ireland within the next five years.

Polls in Northern Ireland show that overall the people do not want to leave the United Kingdom, mainly for economic reasons.

However, since last week's election, the DUP, which advocates Northern Ireland remaining in Britain, is refusing to nominate ministers to form a new Executive until the problems with the Protocol are sorted out.  Under rules of the Northern Ireland Assembly, Sinn Fein cannot appoint their First Minister, without a DUP Deputy Minister and the DUP are refusing to cooperate until their demands for changes to the NI Protocol have been addressed.

Despite a recent debate in the UK Parliament to scrap the NI Protocol, the UK Northern Ireland Secretary, Brandon Lewis, said it would be better to negotiate with the European Union, which is a pointless exercise, when you look back at past endless negotiations that went nowhere!

The EU has indicated that it is not prepared to make any changes to Brexit legislation, which has already been signed into law and is unwilling to remove clauses relating to the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Today Liz Truss, the British Foreign Secretary, has spoken to European Union leaders and given them an ultimatum after rejecting their recent proposals and the UK Attorney General has received legal advice that it could scrap aspects of the Protocol if it was causing social unrest.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61417798

Ms. Truss says there has been an impasse in power sharing between the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein since the election, which cannot be improved without changes to the NI Protocol.  She says: 'Prices have risen, trade is being badly disrupted, and the people of Northern Ireland are subject to different laws and taxes to those over the Irish Sea (in mainland Britain), which has left them without an Executive and poses a threat to peace and stability'.  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/05/10/liz-truss-stands-firm-eu-threatens-trade-war/

Britain may need to trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which allows for either party to suspend parts of it, if it is causing serious problems, such as 'diversion of trade' and 'societal difficulties', which would be legal justifications.

The EU is not happy about this and is making lots of threats, including cancelling the Brexit Trade deal, legal action, dispute procedures or tariffs.  

This is an ongoing situation and we will have to see if Boris Johnson and Liz Truss have the courage to take action.

Is the EU Pushing for a United Ireland?

by Louise Mclean

Currently the people of Northern Ireland are so incensed about the way they have been sold out to the EU by the British Government, that violent nightly riots have been going on all over Northern Ireland since 29th March.

Update May 2021:  Lawsuit - Defending the Union of the UK, Ending the Northern Ireland Protocol

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/defending-the-union-of-the-uk/

Ever since Brexit finally happened at the very end of 2020, it has been a very hollow victory for its supporters, mainly because of the terms and conditions relating to Northern Ireland.  The Northern Ireland Protocol, which Unionist politicians believe should be scrapped immediately, has created a border down the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain, causing a number of serious problems.  

Here a former Brexit Party MEP, Ben Habib, explains why the Northern Ireland Protocol should be dropped and says the border should have remained on the mainland, between the North and South of Ireland, as it has done for over 100 years. 

Firstly, Northern Ireland has effectively been kept under EU law and secondly it is still in the Single Market for goods, so trade between it and the rest of Britain has been seriously impacted. Trade has become too expensive and lined with red tape for British exporters to make it worth their while, meaning that many products are now missing from the shelves of the shops in Northern Ireland.

Problems surrounding trade mean products must comply with strict EU rules on for example, animal and plant health, and traders must complete a range of new processes  in order to ship from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.  Delays due to border checks cause disruption of supply chains of goods moving from the UK to Northern Ireland. Many British firms have decided the market is too small to continue supplying Northern Ireland and that the increased costs, as well as red tape, are simply not worth the bother.

However, the Northern Ireland Protocol is not yet fully operational, as there has been a grace period for certain certifications and declarations, which lapses in the months ahead. The grace period for checks on parcels and some supermarket goods ended on 31st March, revealing the problems.  Conservative minister Michael Gove has asked the European Commission to extend the grace period until January 2023 in order to find resolutions to these difficulties.

The UK Internal Market Bill would have safeguarded trade with Northern Ireland by scrapping parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol and this was favourably greeted by Democratic Unionist Party MPs.  Unfortunately the EU absolutely refused to allow the Conservative Government to push the Bill through Parliament unless those clauses were dropped, saying it was a breach of 'international law', when in fact it would have protected N.I. from many of the crippling restrictions it is now facing.

Currently the Republic of Ireland in the South of Ireland is under the EU empire and it seems as though by holding on to Northern Ireland, the plan all along was to keep them both under the EU stranglehold in the hope of a United Ireland, fully under its grip.

Why Boris Johnson and Conservative Ministers did not see this coming, is extraordinary, as it was plain to many people when the Northern Ireland Protocol was first drafted, this might be the likely outcome in the fullness of time. Few have mentioned this dangerous possibility, which would of course mean that the EU had in fact taken British land as a payment for Brexit.

However, a poll in February showed that nearly 60% of Northern Irish people would prefer to stay in the UK.

Currently the people of Northern Ireland are so incensed about the way they have been sold out to the EU by the British Government, that violent nightly riots have been going on all over Northern Ireland since 29th March. As many as 90 police officers have been injured and petrol bombs, masonry and missiles have been thrown, mainly by teenagers.  The violence is the worst seen in many years.

The EU and British Government say they are currently looking into solutions to the problems of trade between Britain and Northern Ireland but knowing the history of Brexit, this may just be weasel words.  It is far more likely that behind the scenes there is a genuine plan to unite the whole of Ireland under the EU flag and for some reason the British Government is not stopping this from becoming a reality.