Don’t delay fixing the Northern Ireland Protocol

T alks on the future of the Northern Ireland protocol between the EU and the UK are reaching a head. Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, and Maros Sefcovic of the European Commission held discussions in Brussels yesterday, but the progress made was by all accounts limited.

The main aim of the protocol was to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, but this came at the expense of raising serious trade barriers between the province and the mainland. There has been disruption to supply chains and clear evidence that trade has been diverted from its pre-brexit patterns. EU proposals to address some of these issues go nowhere near far enough, despite claims from Brussels that it is being generous and open-minded.

In any case, the problem with the protocol is essentially constitutional. It undermines the integrity of the United Kingdom, an intolerable situation for Unionists, while requiring British subjects to live under rules that are set by an external power. The European Court of Justice also remains the supreme arbiter of the protocol, a situation that the British Government wants ended.

Lord Frost has said that the UK wants a fundamental reform of the treaty, something that the EU has so far refused to contemplate. He has also indicated that he is prepared to trigger Article 16, which allows either side to take unilateral “safeguard measures” should the protocol cause “serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties”. Lord Frost seemingly remains hopeful that gaps between the sides could still be bridged via the negotiations, but the EU has shown little sign thus far of being willing to move far enough.

In which case, the UK would be perfectly justified in triggering Article 16. It is not a “nuclear option” that would damage trust permanently between the two parties, as some on the EU side would have it. It is a provision that was written into the treaty, specifically in anticipation that the protocol may not work perfectly in real life.

During a row over Covid vaccines earlier in the year, the EU invoked the article in order to introduce export controls on the jabs, before rapidly reversing course. If the UK were to do the same, it would not be doing so out of spite or malice, but because the protocol has failed.

There were several incidents of violence in the province this week, so the situation is far from stable. It is believed that the Government wishes to refrain from using Article 16 until the Cop26 conference in Glasgow is over, to avoid a diplomatic row derailing the climate talks. Resolving the Northern Ireland issue is a matter of fundamental importance. Time is running out and the Government should not hold back from doing what is necessary.

Racism in cricket

The shocking scandal of the racist abuse of a young cricketer has severely tarnished the reputation of Yorkshire County Cricket Club. That Azeem Rafiq was subjected to racism has been rightly condemned and must now result in the most thorough-going investigation by the game’s governing body, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

Any investigation by the ECB should be more rigorous than that established by the Yorkshire club, which decreed to its everlasting shame that the racist slurs aimed at Mr Rafiq were nothing more than “good-natured banter”.

Sadly, the ECB’S record in this case is not without blemish. It refused to act when told of the concerns about racist attitudes at the club and it took protests by politicians for it to get involved. Furthermore, although the ECB now has a copy of the Yorkshire report, it has still not been published – an omission that should be rectified immediately. Former England test captain Michael Vaughan has been accused of racially abusing Mr Rafiq, a claim that he emphatically denies.

The Yorkshire chairman Roger Hutton resigned yesterday but also blamed other members of his board for refusing “to accept change or challenge” at the cricket club. The ECB has banned Yorkshire from hosting any major international matches and also banned one former Test player, Gary Ballance, who admitted using a “racial slur” against Mr Rafiq, from international cricket.

It is a sorry affair. But the cricket authorities might yet rescue the game’s reputation – if they act quickly to seize the opportunity to foster a dramatic change in its culture.

Meaning to be happy

The old Lincolnshire song says that “my delight on a shining night, in the season of the year” is to bag a hare while the gamekeeper’s not looking. But bigger prey are in the sights of the people of that fine county next year: spouses. The council, we report, is hiring not gamekeepers but registrars and their crew to meet the epithalamial rush. And the nation follows where Lincolnshire leads. After lockdown’s miseries, 2022 will be a wedding year. The very thwarting of many a planned splicing showed why weddings, though not the invention of the state, are to be recognised and welcomed by it. The marriage drought might have proved something else: that a wedding is not the end point that sees cash blown like fireworks. It is the beginning – of something good – hence the urge we feel to applaud the couples who mean to be happy.