Today’s
Newsletter carries an article by Mr Ben Habib a recent champion of Unionism who
has arrived on scene to rescue the union from the worst excesses of a seriously
deficient Boris Johnston and the Conservative Party unable to protect Northern
Ireland from those pesky Europeans.
When he writes
“The Northern
Ireland Protocol has been imposed on Northern Ireland without even a shred of
consent from its people, let alone the cross-community consent which is at the
heart of the Belfast Agreement.”
he does so
without any sense of irony given that he, himself, did indeed vote to impose
the Withdrawal Agreement containing the NI Protocol on the people of Northern
Ireland when a Brexit MEP.
This is the
same Ben Habib who is mentioned in a recent Irish News article,
Mr Habib
believes "Northern Ireland has been left behind" and that the Irish
Sea regulatory border has disrupted trade between Britain and the region.
"What it
said on the referendum paper and what the prime minister promised in his
manifesto of 2019 was that the UK would leave the EU – there was no deal that
we'd leave Northern Ireland behind," he said.
"It's
actually repugnant that we should leave part of the UK behind. It makes me feel
sick to the core, which is why I've taken the action I've taken." Irish
News 25th February 2021
Yet this is
the same Ben Habib who wrote on the 18th February 2020 in the Daily
Telegraph
“Undoubtedly
the Protocol and associated border down the Irish Sea was an unnecessary and
hefty concession made by the British government to get Brexit over the line.
Undoubtedly it belies any claim that the UK is leaving the EU whole, in control
of its laws and borders. But instead of resisting the inevitable, NI should
embrace it and make it work for its own great benefit and that of the United
Kingdom.”
Earlier
comments in the same article detail why Mr Habib felt that trying to mitigate
the Protocol would be wrong
“Many
unionists now wish for the future arrangements between the EU and the UK to be
as close as possible. They hope that, by diluting the effects of Brexit and
staying closely aligned with the EU, they will neuter the adverse implications
of the Protocol for the union of NI and GB.
They must resist the temptation to push for close alignment between the
EU and UK.”
Any idea that
the pure Brexit Mr Habib sought would be lessoned to protect the union was not
in Mr Habib’s plan and so the economic benefits of the Protocol as seen by him were
writ large for all to see:
“NI has been
afforded one major advantage by the Protocol. It will be able to export goods
tariff-free to both the EU and GB. This is a unique position, the advantages of
which grow the greater the divergence of the UK from the EU.
NI should be
the perfect home for businesses seeking to export to both the EU and GB. The
British government should assist by ensuring that businesses wishing to locate
in NI are able to access cost effective funding and that the tax environment
for businesses in NI is made at least as accommodating as it is in Ireland. The
rest would happen automatically. Indeed, with the right support NI could and
should become a tiger economy within the UK.
If the NI
economy does as well as it should, irrespective of the obvious drawbacks of the
Protocol, there is every chance of Ireland itself aligning more closely with
Great Britain, rather than NI aligning itself more closely with the EU. The
border down the Irish Sea should diminish greatly as a threat to the UK’s
union.”
So what has
motivated Mr Habib to saddle up a white charger and come to the rescue of
unionism. Perhaps a clue is to be found in an online interview with Proactive
Investors, available on You Tube, on the 10th June 2016, a few days
before the referendum, Habib touches on the BREXIT debate, noting he would be
“very gung-ho” should the UK vote to leave the EU.
“If we get a
vote for BREXIT and if the commentators are right that sterling will weaken and
the markets will go into a degree of volatility, we’ll be looking at that as a
really great opportunity to buy assets in the UK,” he says.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8pop9VYCOo
Of course Mr
Habib is first and foremost a businessman indeed while an MEP he apparently earned
more from his main employment than any other MEP. His business model was highlighted
by BBC Newsnight on Jul 16, 2019 when Emily Maitlis pointed out: “You line your
own pockets with everyone else going bust”
Mr Habib
depends on volatility and disruption to create the markets conditions in which
he thrives. Resolving issues with the Protocol doesn’t deliver for Ben, in fact
the Trade and Co-operation Agreement doesn’t deliver for Ben despite the
disruption so far. What delivers for Ben is winding things up to create the
circumstances where the UK and EU revert to a no deal Brexit over NI. By the way
even Ben admits that in those circumstances the Withdrawal Agreement remains.
Should Mr
Habib arrive at the offices of the Dept of the Economy with plans for a factory
to build gull-wing door cars which can travel in time in a factory on the
Shankill there will be unionists who hail him as a hero. I will not be one,
like many before he is not here for us, he is here for himself and the profit
he can make. When he is done he will be gone and we will have to pick up the
pieces of whatever he leaves behind.