Northern Ireland

Analysis: Unionism must learn that diplomacy and persuasion gets you much further than protest

Jim Allister, Kate Hoey and Ben Habib arrive at the High Court in Belfast yesterday. Picture by Rebecca Black/PA Wire
Jim Allister, Kate Hoey and Ben Habib arrive at the High Court in Belfast yesterday. Picture by Rebecca Black/PA Wire Jim Allister, Kate Hoey and Ben Habib arrive at the High Court in Belfast yesterday. Picture by Rebecca Black/PA Wire

POLITICAL unionism shot itself in the foot over Brexit, before being stabbed in the back by the British government, only to complain and be publicly humiliated by the judicial system.

Yesterday’s High Court ruling was the latest lesson for unionism that the institutions it holds dear are no longer there solely to serve its interests.

Yet the bid to project unionism’s countless missteps onto others will continue regardless.

The applicants to the judicial review of the Northern Ireland Protocol plan to appeal the court’s ruling but their arguments have been shown to be full of holes.

Every point of their challenge was thrown out and even though Mr Justice Colton agreed that the Irish Sea border repealed the Act of Union, he said the 220-year-old legislation had been superseded by the Withdrawal Agreement, which the sovereign parliament of the United Kingdom voted for. The irony of his conclusion must make the applicants seethe inside.

Despite this defeat, political unionism’s leaders seem intent on using the few minor elements of the ruling that went in their favour as the basis for continued agitation against the protocol. Freshly-ratified DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson warned of future instability if unionist concerns are not addressed, seemingly overlooking the fact that the court’s ruling has assuaged most of those concerns.

In the face of growing evidence, unionists seem determined to continue with the claim that trade is being disrupted, their identity is being eroded, and the Good Friday Agreement’s consent principle is being subverted. The causes they will attach themselves to are becoming increasingly expedient and equally nebulous but that’s alright just as long as it means they don’t have to concede that they got things wrong.

Will their attitude be any different if the Supreme Court throws out their case? Probably not – and their arguments will have even less credibility than they do now.

In recent days, the EU has demonstrated it can be flexible and that through negotiation, difficulties with the protocol can be overcome. By the same token, the British government has shown that while not always trustworthy, it too can be pragmatic.

The protocol, an annex to an international treaty, is not going go away on the basis of a failed legal challenge and a few hundred loyalists doing what loyalists do over the summer.

In dealing with this situation, unionism first of all must be honest and realistic with itself, before taking a leaf out of the Dublin government’s book by recognising that diplomacy and persuasion gets you much further than protest.