NEW Westminster legislation reinstating the primacy of the Act of Union and making the Republic responsible for enforcing the EU's single market at the border are among proposals tabled as an alternative to the protocol.
Jamie (Poundshop) Bryson has co-authored a paper for the Centre for the Union. Picture by Hugh Russell
10th January, 2023.
Published by the Centre for the Union, a group set up last year to "protect our United Kingdom of Great Britain and NI", the document is written by its director Ethan Thoburn and blogger Jamie Bryson.
Its contents have been characterised as "rehashing unworkable fantasies".
Ethan Thoburn should have hired someone with a little more experience than Bryson to co-author 'Centre for the Union paper'
The paper assesses the constitutional impact of protocol and includes potential remedies for what it terms the "damage" caused by the post-Brexit trade arrangements.
The authors say it is "designed to assist discussion" and does not represent a definitive solution.
However, it says there are "fundamental constitutional principles which cannot be the subject of negotiation", including the Acts of Union and the sovereignty of UK law.
Another loyalist propoganda poster threatening the GFA and the NI Protocol threatening a return to violence and fully backed by the DUP and its leader Jeffrey Donaldson MP
"It is not for the United Kingdom to pay the price of the EU’s adoption of the nationalist demand that there can be no north-south border," it says.
"It is for the EU to protect their own single market, and if they wish to adopt arrangements compatible with the wishes of the Irish government/nationalism, then it is for the EU to absorb any associated risk with doing so."
As an alternative to the arrangements which are currently being discussed by the EU and British government, the document proposes a "UK Constitutional Bill", that would "entrench the supremacy of the Acts of Union" and restrict the Stormont assembly's ability to adopt legislation that may undermine the north's place in the union.
FCUK THE DUP AND JAMIE BRYSON TOO
It also advocates ending the application of EU law in the north and creating cross-community measures in the assembly that could veto any further adoption of Brussels' rules.
The paper, which is reported to have "broad support" from the DUP and TUV, suggests restoring fully the north's place in UK’s customs territory and creating an ‘EU tunnel’ at the border which would see traders "self-declare" their adherence to EU standards.
SDLP MLA Matthew O'Toole said the document "does not deserve to be taken seriously".
"As well as rehashing unworkable fantasies about post-Brexit arrangements, it makes basic errors in constitutional law," he said.
Loyalist propaganda poster claiming the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) is a swindle its intension to destroy the NI Protocol
"For example, the Northern Ireland Assembly is not legally allowed to pass constitutional law under the devolution settlement but more broadly, this paper is a cynical attempt to seed hard right unionist taking points into discourse, from people who have always wanted to destroy the Good Friday Agreement."
With many thanks to the: Irish News and John Manley Political Correspondent for the original story.
Follow these links to find out more on this story: All Eight DUP MP's Voted For The Border and Nationality Bill - Leading The Way To The Electronic Travel Authorisation Scheme (ETA) - Which Threatens Our Health Service Provision and Tourism in the North Warns Irish Government.
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