WITH GOOD FAITH, PROTOCOL PROBLEMS CAN BE WORKED OUT

IT SEEMS morbidly appropriate in the torturous history of relations between the UK, this country and the EU that the latest row should be about, of all things, the extension of a ‘grace period’. ‘Grace’ is not something readily associated with the brinkmanship and cliff edges that have dogged every bad-humoured step along the road to Brexit. Levels of exasperation in Brussels and Dublin at the latest showdown over the Northern Ireland Proto- col do not bode well for the future.

As governments struggle around the world to protect themselves and seek deepened co-operation to get through the pandemic, energies do not need to be diverted into another fractious and distracting campaign to undermine an international sovereign agreement.

Brexit was always fraught with difficulties and dangers; the whole purpose of the protocol was to limit them. Several versions were drafted, but the one insisted upon by Prime Minister Boris Johnson is the one his government is now undermining.

If the UK could not be trusted to stick to an agreement, then the EU would be left with no option but to take legal action, Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar pointed out it was the second time in just a few months the British government has threatened to breach international law.

But in the North, things have taken an even more sinister twist. The Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) – which represents the views of loyalist paramilitary groups – has declared in a letter to Downing Street that it is pulling its support for the Good Friday Agreement until the Irish Sea border is removed. This will be seen as a direct threat. The DUP’s Ian Paisley said he feared the letter was a “genie getting out of the bottle”.

But as Alliance MP Stephen Farry noted: “The [Good Friday] Agreement gets its legitimacy from the dual referendums north and south in 1998, they are not dependent on any loyalist, paramilitary or terrorist organisation.”

Nonetheless, all those who uphold and support democratic politics will be alarmed at the turn of events. Respect for international agreements is key to political and trade relationships.

Threats, ultimatums or unilateral action in the middle of negotiations aimed at finding common ground are no way to secure resolution.

London’s decision to leave the North aligned with the EU’s single market for goods – requiring checks on some items arriving there from elsewhere in the UK – was a bitter pill for unionists.

However, the notion loyalists, or any other paramilitaries, can set the terms for how future relationships evolve, or any step that indulges such a notion, must not be countenanced.

As former UK prime minister Tony Blair, a signatory of the Good Friday Agreement, warned unionist leaders recently, their campaign against the protocol is futile because it could only be replaced by a similar set of arrangements.

These are early days. With good faith, difficulties can be worked out, not forced through.

Energies do not need to be diverted into another fractious campaign