Exactly one year on from TUV unveiled its plan to disrupt the Protocol have polls scared the DUP into catching up?
Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“One year ago today I detailed TUV’s plan to disrupt the Protocol. This involved Unionists taking serious and sustained political action on three fronts:
They needed to freeze their involvement in the Belfast Agreement’s North/South institutions until the east/west equilibrium was restored;
There could be no repeat of EU laws being adopted by the Assembly as happened on 8th December 2020 when 45 such laws were meekly voted through with only Jim Wells and I in opposition and
The DAERA Minister, Mr Poots, should have directed discontinuance of cooperation of his officials in operating the Irish Sea border checks.
“Shamefully the Protocol has been permitted to bed in for a whole year with some Unionist opposition at best sporadic and lacking conviction. One North/South meeting was boycotted only for the next to be attended. Other meetings approved appointments to North/South bodies which went well beyond the remit of the supposed reason for the meeting. Just this week I had confirmation by way of a written answer that DUP Economy Minister Gordon Lyons had asked for appointments to the North/South tourism body at a Health meeting. Such meaningless posturing sent a message of weakness to Dublin, London and the EU.
“Now there is speculation that Minister Poots, after operating the Sea Border for a year, may finally withdraw staff. The obvious question for the DUP is why did their Minister ever built the border which partitions the U.K. in the first place? Why did it take opinion polls showing sustained high levels of support for TUV for the DUP to act? If the DUP act now that will be welcome but I am sure there will be many shrewd voters who will recognise that the way to ensure the DUP delivers is to sustain strong support for TUV? We are the guarantor!
“Time will tell if the latest DUP threats are more serious than those which went before but the electorate are entitled to be sceptical. Any action over the next few months which isn’t consistent with their action over the past year will, I suspect, be met with cynicism by an electorate which the DUP have taken for granted for far too long.”