Speaking in Markethill on Ulster Day, 28th September, at a rally marking the anniversary of the Ulster Covenant, TUV leader Jim Allister said its demand for “equal citizenship” today lay at the heart of opposition to the Protocol. He also depicted the Protocol as the path relied on by ‘Varadkar the Venomous’ to secure the Irish unity he claimed would follow in his lifetime.
Extracts from speech:-
“At the heart of the Ulster Covenant, which we celebrate tonight, was the simple but compelling demand for “equal citizenship”.
“That demand is as relevant today for unionists in Northern Ireland as it was over 100 years ago.
“The essence of our unalterable opposition to the iniquitous Protocol is the demand for:
- equal citizenship with everyone else in the UK in being governed only by laws made in our own country;
- the equal citizenship of trading freely, without checks and tariffs, within our own country;
- the equal citizenship of no part of our country being deemed in trading terms foreign territory;
- the equal citizenship of living wholly within the UK Single Market and Customs Code, not the EU’s;
- the equal citizenship of being subject only to our own courts;
- the equal citizenship of having the same protections and benefits of the very Acts of Union that created the United Kingdom, including Art 6 now shamefully suspended in respect of Northern Ireland only.
“It was the threat of being pushed out of United Kingdom which gave rise to the Ulster Covenant and its rallying demand for equal citizenship.
“Under the Protocol and the Windsor Whitewash, which changes none of its essential elements, all of these core facets of equal citizenship are denied.
“Herein lies the parallel threat in our generation: our absorption, without consent, into an Irish Republic through the stepping stone of economic unity, with our economy and trade operating under the same EU laws as in the Republic by retaining us in the the same Single Market and Customs Zone.
“When ‘Varadkar the Venomous’ talks of a path to Irish Unity it is the Protocol he is referring to. It has already achieved what the IRA failed to achieve in pushing the border to the Irish Sea. Any unionist who fails to recognise the intent and effect of the Protocol, and who foolishly wants to operate it through Stormont, is not just deluded but a tool willing to be used in our destruction.
“Make no mistake, the moment Unionists implement the Union-dismantling Protocol, by operating it through Stormont, is the moment our position becomes irretrievable. The die is then cast. Stormont is the Rubicon to the Republic.
“Hence, the unavoidable necessity for Unionism to stand firm. Markethill led the way in initiating anti-Protocol protests. Tonight in this place let us rededicate ourselves to that cause as we hallow the memory of those who over 100 years ago recognised the defining issue as one of “equal citizenship”. It remains so today.
“Our unionism finds root and security not in Stormont or the baubles of office shared with IRA/Sinn Fein, but in the unflinching demand for equal citizenship within our own United Kingdom. That is the rock on which the Protocol must be made to perish.”