Thread by @KellerZoe

We cannot stand for the EU's attempt to partition the UK. A damaging Protocol that alters the constitutional position of Northern Ireland is unacceptable.
— Vernon Bogdanor
telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/…

The dispute over the Northern Ireland Protocol is about more than sausages. It concerns the right of the people of Northern Ireland to self-determination. Some in the EU appear to believe that NI is not fully a part of the United Kingdom. It is.

In December 1921, the Anglo-Irish Treaty recognised the right of self-determination of 26 counties in the island of Ireland to secede from the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland then exercised her own right of self-determination by deciding to remain a part of the United Kingdom.

This decision was legitimised in 1998 by the Good Friday Agreement which guaranteed Northern Ireland’s constitutional position by providing that it should not cease to remain part of the United Kingdom until a majority so consented.

The GFA did not establish a hybrid status for Northern Ireland. It confirmed British sovereignty in Northern Ireland in exchange for power-sharing with equality of treatment for both communities. Nor did the agreement mandate a soft border on the island of Ireland.

The NI Protocol transforms Northern Ireland into a condominium jointly ruled by Britain and the EU. But while Northern Ireland is represented at Westminster, she is not represented in the EU, though subject to EU regulations.

NI has not consented to the Protocol. In subjecting NI to a major constitutional change without consent, the Protocol breaches the spirit if not the letter of the Good Friday Agreement, as well as the principle of international law requiring respect for territorial integrity.

The Protocol can hardly be accepted as legitimate until validated by the people of Northern Ireland. A major constitutional change, de facto partially extruding a section of the country from the UK against its will, tests the limits of allegiance.

Before 1914, Unionists refused to accept a Dublin Parliament. In 1974, they rejected the Council of Ireland bringing it down by direct action with disastrous consequences for the peace process. On both occasions, Westminster underestimated the strength of feeling among Unionists.

The British Govt has been accused by the US and the EU of inflammatory rhetoric. Perhaps inflammatory rhetoric is not out of place when the unity of the UK is at stake. What is to be said of the comment by Sefcovic, that the EU’s patience “is wearing very, very thin”?

I am a supporter of the EU but Mr Sefcovic’s language is reminiscent of that of the dictators of the 1930s. The Protocol de facto partitions the United Kingdom.

— Vernon Bogdanor is Professor of Government, King’s College, London