DUP overplays its Brexit hand on the Irish protocol

DUP overplays its Brexit hand on the Irish protocol

Welcome back. Do you work in an industry that has been affected by the UK's departure from the EU single market and customs union? If so, how is the change hurting “” or even benefiting “” you and your business? Please keep your feedback coming to [email protected].

Good afternoon from Belfast where Brexit Briefing has been spending a few days delving into the question of Northern Ireland's constitutional future and whether Brexit ultimately makes a united Ireland more or less likely. 

Of course that question is far from unallied to how Brexit itself plays out in Northern Ireland in the longer term and whether the Northern Ireland protocol can be made to operate in a way that doesn't obviously and excessively disadvantage NI consumers.

How you define "excessive“ is important, because even if the UK succeeds via its brinkmanship with the EU in whittling down the impact of the protocol and "de-dramatises“ the Irish Sea border it created, there will still be some losses to Northern Irish consumers.

But that is equally true of GB consumers who will find that Brexit brings shifts in pricing and availability, much of which they won't notice, and some of which “” like VAT demands on parcels from the EU “”