Extract from speech by TUV leader Jim Allister at anti-Protocol rally in Dromore
“There is no escaping or fudging of the constitutional consequences of the Protocol. It not only directly challenges Northern Ireland’s position within the U.K., but is incompatible with it.
“By its very fettering of internal U.K. trade it, as the High Court has found, is in direct contradiction of Art 6 of the Acts of Union. Thereby, it has made constitutional change and that without consent. The resulting subjection to foreign laws and jurisdiction gives practical and objectionable effect to its reality. It is an instrument of subjugation and intended to be so.
“Thus, no unionist worthy of the name can ever accept or implement it.
“Its economic mischief is dire, but its constitutional mischief is terminal to the Union.
“Its clear purpose is to build Irish unity through the stepping stone of an all-island economy, whereby Northern Ireland’s alignment to and affiliation with GB is broken and the Irish unification anticipated in the Belfast Agreement is achieved.
“That is why I have always said Unionists either kill the Protocol or it will kill the Union.
“This Protocol is irredeemable. Any tinkering which leaves us in any way in a foreign single market for goods, under a foreign Customs Code and vat regime, all subject to foreign laws and a foreign court, can never be made acceptable or rendered constitutionally viable.”