Mps: if you don't care about northern ireland, at least be honest enough to say so | thearticle

Sports fans in Northern Ireland sing ‘stand up for the Ulstermen’ to encourage their rugby and football teams. Unionists are waiting, seemingly in vain, for MPs in parliament to ‘stand up

for the Ulstermen’ (and women) as it becomes increasingly obvious that Boris’s Brexit deal will divide the UK and weaken the province’s economy. The government’s argument that the new

withdrawal agreement protects the Union and maintains unfettered access for Northern Ireland to the British market is steadily falling apart. In fact, ministers have given such hapless and

uncertain answers to detailed questions about the deal, it’s not clear whether they are deliberately misrepresenting the document or genuinely don’t understand its contents. Meanwhile, in

the House of Commons, not a single MP from a constituency outside Northern Ireland opposed Boris Johnson’s deal on the basis that it damaged the Union. Even Kate Hoey, who in Saturday’s 

_Belfast News Letter_ wrote “I will never support any move which seeks to break apart even by a few threads the precious link with Great Britain”, abstained rather than vote against the

withdrawal agreement bill. Indeed, she was one of five Labour MPs to back the prime minister’s plan to fast-track Brexit legislation. The DUP is friendless in the House of Commons’ chamber,

despite its pact with the Conservatives, for whose Queen’s Speech it still voted dutifully. That isn’t exactly surprising, for it can be an unlovable, charmless party. But, it’s quite

something to watch Tory Brexiteers and their supporters turn on former allies because they’ve had the temerity to question how the prime minister’s deal will affect Northern Ireland and the

Union. Previously, they supported the DUP when it rejected Theresa May’s version of the Withdrawal Agreement. That deal created obstacles for trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland

that were only partly mitigated by a common UK-EU customs territory. There was a risk that her provisional arrangement would become permanent, or that Ulster would be left in the backstop

on its own, while the rest of the country left. The arrangements agreed by Boris Johnson entrench serious differences from the beginning and there’s no attempt to claim that they will be

temporary. Northern Ireland companies will be obliged to pay up-front tariffs, when they ‘import’ goods from Great Britain, unless the products are specifically exempted by a ‘joint

committee’. They will be required to complete expensive export paperwork to send shipments to the main-land. There will be checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea. And Northern Ireland is

likely to have different VAT rates than those applying nationally. The government has tried to deny or downplay each of these effects, only to admit later that they are accurate under

detailed questioning. Every day, stories emerge of new ways the province could be cut off from national life. Belatedly, business organisations, that were previously focussed only on the

threat of a hard land border in Ireland, are waking up to the threat of trade barriers between Ulster and by far its biggest market in Great Britain. Ministers admit that they have little

idea about the practicalities or the added costs Northern Ireland companies will face. They say one thing one moment, and the next they issue corrections, prompted by officials. It’s clearly

obvious they don’t know how the Withdrawal Agreement Bill will affect Northern Ireland and it seems more than likely that they don’t care. At the same time, the government is dashing for

the Brexit finishing line, trying to avoid scrutiny of relevant legislation and demanding it be fast-tracked through parliament. The recklessness of this supposedly conservative

administration is incredible. I admit, that while I was suspicious of Johnson and feared he would accept a Northern Ireland only backstop, I struggled to see how he could be worse than

Theresa May. I underestimated the anarchy he was prepared to unleash in order to get his way. I was sceptical about his unionist credentials, but I didn’t foresee that he’d be prepared to

smash up the Union so wantonly to pursue Brexit. I realise, of course, that many English Brexiteers think the violence they’re visiting on the UK’s constitution is justified so that they can

finally leave the EU. They blame MPs who voted for the Benn Act and undermined the prime minister’s negotiating position, or they don’t care about Northern Ireland and say so openly. This

sentiment is reflected in polls that show Conservative voters would jettison the province and Scotland to get Brexit done. Their position is honest, at least. And, unfortunately, it looks

like damage to the Union is now unavoidable. If the DUP allied with remainers to force a second referendum or demand a joint customs territory with the EU, it would destroy for good any

social solidarity that English voters feel toward Northern Ireland. In time, that would surely break up the UK completely. Yet, the idea that this deal doesn’t weaken the Union beyond repair

is simply not credible. Much earlier in the negotiations, it was alleged that the EU saw Northern Ireland as the ‘price’ the government had to pay to get Brexit. Boris Johnson has decided

it’s a price worth paying. If his fellow Conservatives and Brexit-backing MPs in other parties feel the same way, they should say so, and stop treating Northern Irish unionists like fools,

by pretending this agreement protects their place in the UK.