John Walsh: Demand for removal of NI protocol is a battle unionists will not win

The EU is strong, Brexit is a disaster and most Northern young people are no longer identity voters: unionists need to wake up to these new realities

All unionist parties and loyalist groups have made the removal of the protocol a red line ahead of the assembly elections. If they stick rigidly to this position, it will ultimately weaken the ties that bind the union. Picture: Declan Roughan/Press Eye

The assembly elections on May 5 are shaping up to be one of the most important plebiscites since the foundation of Northern Ireland just over a hundred years ago.

This election should not have been any different to previous ones, but unionists have magnified an argument about the location of post-Brexit trade checks into an alleged constitutional threat to the future of the North.

The media coverage of the election has been sidelined by the ...