Consitutional changes are merely pathway towards a united Ireland

AFTER the introduction of a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK as part of Boris Johnson’s betrayal (in, ironically, the year we mark Northern Ireland’s centenary), now is the time for true unionists to rally and promote the unionist cause.

Constitutionally, major changes have now come into place; the most important being a customs and regulatory border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, where even a parcel being sent from Great Britain to a customer in Northern Ireland will require a customs declaration.

This is not a “gateway of opportunity”, as some unionist leaders are portraying it, but a pathway to a united Ireland, with the loss of many of the advantages we have all enjoyed as being a full part of the UK and any future advantages of Brexit.

As a UK unionist, who truly believes in Northern Ireland’s full place in the UK, no one can tell me that this has not been eroded and damaged.

The 1801 Act of Union, which is the basis for trade across the UK, has been breached and the 1998 Belfast Agreement, which states that there can be no change to Northern Ireland’s constitutional position within the UK, has been torn up.

The Prime Minister, who calls himself a unionist, has given sovereignty away in the Northern Ireland Protocol, with the hardest of economic and political borders in the Irish Sea.

How can the leader of any country give away one of its nations in such a way, allowing Northern Ireland to be annexed by the EU and still call themselves a unionist?

The fabric of the UK has been severely damaged and I can see Scotland and the Scottish Nationalists use this in a push for independence.

Unionist leadership has been weak for many years now and, if we had the same unionist leaders 100 years ago as we have today, Northern Ireland would never have been created.

STEVAN PATTERSON Castlederg, Co Tyrone