Boris Johnson a ‘lousy unionist’, says Orangeman leader

Boris Johnson has proven to be a “lousy trade unionist” with his Brexit “betrayal” of Northern Ireland, a prominent Orange man has said.

The Reverend Mervyn Gibson said the region had been left in a “place apart” from the rest of the UK as a result of the Brexit achieved by the British prime minister, with the creation of economic barriers with Great Britain.

Speaking in a personal capacity, the Rev. Gibson, Grand Secretary of the Orange Order, said unionists should not focus on protests but on strengthening the Union in the future.

He recognized that the consequences of the new trade deals agreed in the Brexit withdrawal agreement would shift Northern Ireland’s economic orientation towards Dublin.

“I think they betrayed us, there is no other way to put it,” said Rev Gibson.

“Unfortunately we trusted Boris Johnson when he said that there would be no border in the Irish Sea, that we would be no different, that we left Europe as a UK.

“Unfortunately that is not the case. It has made Northern Ireland a place apart, it has ceded some sovereignty to Europe, you will have Europe making certain laws and enforcing certain things in Northern Ireland and we have no representation in the European Parliament, so it abandoned us on that path. “

He added: “Actually some of Boris’s speeches refer to ‘Great Britain’ and no longer to the UK.

“They have betrayed us before. Churchill tried to betray us, Thatcher betrayed us.

“They were great prime ministers, but they were lousy trade unionists. The jury is deciding whether Boris is a great prime minister, but he has already proven to be a lousy trade unionist.

Winston Churchill offered a united Ireland in exchange for the Irish state joining the UK war effort in 1940 and Margaret Thatcher signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, which gave the Republic more voice in Northern affairs.

“We have to get the most out of it,” Rev Gibson said.

“It’s not worth shouting about it, it’s not worth protesting about it, we have to continue to strengthen the Union and the centenary gives us a great opportunity to do so, to build on the next 100 years for Northern Ireland.”

Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson also characterizes the Northern Ireland Protocol as “treason”.

He has written a rebuttal to the argument of the European Research Group’s legal advisory committee that Brexit has not undermined the sovereignty of the United Kingdom.

Bryson has called on trade unionists of all stripes to come together in a collective forum to coordinate their opposition to the protocol.

“It seems that a forum of this type is an essential mechanism for the development of a unionist and loyal collective campaign to end the threat to the Union that the protocol represents,” he said.

“The unionist and loyalist community is a broad church, with many different views on broader social and political issues, yet the only unifying component is the Union.

“It would be a derogation from the duty to defend the Union if such a collective body did not unite with the sole purpose of developing a legal, political, community and civic strategy.

“This strategic move is necessary to resist efforts to annex Northern Ireland to what effectively amounts to a united economic Ireland.”