Iain Dale NI Protocol Fail

Rumours persist, and indeed are intensifying, suggesting the UK is about to invoke Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol as part of the continuing, and effectively pointless, attempt by alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and his singularly inept chief negotiator “Lord” David Frost to have their Brexit cake and eat it.

Iain Dale

Moreover, counter-rumours suggest that the EU side has Bozo and Frostie figured out and will have counter-measures ready should the UK act in what it considers to be bad faith. Worse for the less than totally dynamic British duo, the EU side has every last member state lined up behind its approach. There will be no picking off of any of them.

Put directly, any confrontation will not end well for the UK. No matter, there is always a pundit willing to make a suitably pointless gesture in the general direction of those Rotten Foreigners™, and one of the latest is LBC evening host Iain Dale, now writing for the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph. He doesn’t like the Protocol. At all.

“Remainers will fume, but we have every reason to fix the broken and unfair Northern Ireland Protocol” is the headline, packing two false assumptions from the off. Also, the deflection isn’t cutting it: Bozo and Frostie fouling things up will affect all of us, whichever way we voted in 2016. “The still very vocal Remain lobby” he howls. Pointlessly.

But do go on. “On the face of it, the European Commission made a bold gesture towards alleviating some of the worst economic effects of the Northern Ireland Protocol a few weeks ago, but its proposals were a cosmetic attempt to appear sweet and reasonable”. Citation required, especially as he follows that with “The British side’s analysis is that they are not the game-changer which was needed”. What analysis? What need?

Hello, good evening, and no welcome

There is more. “They also fail to address the constitutional issues with the protocol, including the delicate matter of judicial oversight”. You deal with the EU, you involve the ECJ. Not negotiable, no ifs, no buts. Try again. “In any case, the fact is that the protocol was in some ways explicitly designed to punish Britain, as Jean Claude Juncker’s adviser Martin Selmayr admitted with his famous phrase ‘Northern Ireland is the price the Brits must pay for Brexit’”. False assumption logic leap, whatever. “The fact” isn’t. Next.

“The EU has scant regard for peace in Northern Ireland”. Unless Dale can pony up a reliable citation for that one, it gets filed under “flat-out lie”. Go on. “If it did, it wouldn’t be so ridiculously concerned about the damage a British sausage entering the single market could do to its integrity”. Hey! It’s only about sausages!! No it isn’t. It’s about maintaining the integrity of the EU single market. “[The EU’s] puppets in Dublin”? No. Just no.

Any more whoppers on offer? As if you need to ask. “The protocol was a trap set by Brussels and Boris Johnson, consciously or unconsciously, fell into it just to ‘get Brexit done’”. Given the Protocol originated from the UK side, standing that one up is going to prove seriously challenging. Oh, and “the protocol is an unequal treaty which was never going to last” falls at the first hurdle: why, then, was it commended to us at the time?

This analysis is as dishonest as it is delusional. It is utterly unworthy of Iain Dale, but it will play well with the Tel’s dwindling readership, and will pay well, so that’s all right, then.

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