Deeply depressing to see Jim Allister urging unionists to set about “disrupting” the NI Protocol a campaign campaign that is doomed for three reasons.@SJAMcBri

First, it’s a done deal, no UK government is going to go back on it, or amend no matter how Allister huffs and puffs, so any disruption is running down the docks after a. ship that sailed last year.

Second, as disruption is a dead end, a campaign. against it is doomed to fail, and this failure will further demoralize unionism.

Finally, the only positive thing to do is face the fact that the DUP going for Brexit was at some deep psychological level an attempt to run away from the alleged dangers of the Irish Republic to the allegedly safe arms of the UK

Look at the results of ‘ running away’ from the ROI. Every attempt by unionism to distance itself from the Republic and move closer to the UK, while psychologically understandable, has been a political disaster

Why? Becsuse while UK has no life and death stake in NI, and could dump it without a bother, the Republic is permanently involved in NI because it has a vested interest in peace on the island.

Accordingly, while the UK could cut off NI, the Republic can never do so. The two communities on the island are geographically stuck with each other. So for their own future security Unionists should act on that existential fact.

That means in practice that unionists should pragmatically set out to secure their British identity on the island by turning a their faces a little less to London and a little more to Dublin.

The Shared Island project was the perfect way to start this process. But the grudging response of unionist grandees showed they would rather lament London letting them down than use a Shared Island to force Dublin to give British identity a lift up.

In sum, unionism should learn that the best way to run away from the downside of the Republic is to run towards its upsides -such as a Shared Island.

The first step is to get Sammy Wilson off RTE -which only brings him on because he’s a dodo who makes Unionim look bad by sectarianising every issue -to cover his own complicity in the Protocol sell out.

That’s my lot for now. Except to warn Loyalists not to be led down any dark streets but stick to the progressive political path of David Ervine and Gusty Spence. @Saraita101 @GerryMoriartyIT @BeattieDoug @BBCNolan @AnnTravers6 @SJAMcBride @RMcGreevy1301