Amid the howls of Brexitist outrage about the EU's commencement of enforcement action against the UK for latter's clear breach of its international legal obligations (there's no "alleged" about it...) - let's recall a couple of basic but rather important facts:
Protocol = fundamental compromise. UK accepted [ie Johnson proposed] border down Irish Sea, in order to deliver Hard Brexit demanded by Tory Leave Extremists. EU agreed [a major concession, made for sake of peace in Ireland] that a 3rd country would police its external frontier.
So HMG's actions aren't just an affront to rules-based international order & destabilising intervention in already tense situation in NI - though they are both those things. HMG's actions also directly abuse trust vested in UK, to act as a responsible guardian of EU's own border.
Thanks to Johnson's choices, approved by Parliament, NI's border with GB is now part of EU's border with world. UK offered to enforce it. So EU is right to be furious at UK reneging on its word. Johnson didn't care about UK territorial integrity. Now he's compromising that of EU.
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