There’s clearly been a mistake. With all the fuss and resignations and confusion and refusal, it’s hard for even the brightest minds to include attention to everything. That’s why, in this crisis over Boris Johnson’s leadership, they’ve forgotten to include the protocol.
Mind you, while it’s understandable it’s also a bit surprising. Theresa May said it, Boris Johnson said it, we in the DUP have been saying it repeatedly: the protocol must go. It may get the EU out of a fix but we’re not in the EU any more. With God on our side, we’re free from that sovereignty-sapping organisation. That is, if we’re treated as part of the UK.
And no, we don’t want EU permission to trade with the single market. Keep your single market. We existed before the single market and we’ll damn-well do fine after the single market is dead and buried. We are a valued part of that glorious entity, the United Kingdom. And if the EU thinks we’re going to dilute our UK identity by allowing us to sell dairy products and the like south of the border, they’ve another think coming.
But…But why hasn’t the protocol been at the heart of the debate in the Tory party? Surely the prime minister who says he’ll keep secure the UK would immediately command the respect of all his colleagues. Yes, it can be forgotten in the political frenzy. People’s heads can go into melt-down when there’s change and panic. But surely the protocol is the first thing on the mind of every true Tory? With all our heart and soul and brain we long for and value our place in the UK, and I feel certain…OK, I feel reasonably sure… or at the very least I’m hoping that our dedication to the UK is reciprocated by our Mainland masters.
I met a man yesterday who said they hadn’t mentioned the protocol because they don’t care about it, they’ve bigger fish to fry and they never wanted us in the first place. But this man had a great-uncle by marriage who was refused entry to the Orange Order, so clearly he’s no judge of anything.
No, I’m quite relaxed over the whole thing. The moment No 10 gets back to normal, whoever is occupying it will call in Sir Jeffrey and Sammy and a few other wise heads and together they’ll put the EU back in its greasy, frog-eating box. That’s what matters – the protocol and telling the onion-eaters and the sauerkraut brigade how much Britain values us, we the people of Ulster, as loyal members of our glorious union. And God bless Her Majesty.
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