Northern Ireland Protocol

Brinksmanship or battle stations: Who has the most to lose in a UK/EU trade war?

At a time of soaring inflation and slowing growth in the Irish, Northern Irish and British economies, a trade war between London and Brussels is the last thing anybody needs but fears are growing that it could still happen

Belfast Docks: the upshot of the protocol was that, rather than checks being carried out along the border between Ireland and the North, they had to be carried out at Northern Irish ports. Picture: Shutterstock

A little over a year ago, Sammy Wilson, the Democratic Unionist Party MP, was furious that he and his fellow Northern Irish gardeners were being denied the free seeds that the readers of BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine in Britain enjoyed with each edition.

“I get the magazine and it promises you free seeds, [but] they are excluded from people in Northern Ireland [sic],” the East Antrim MP said.

According to the Daily Express, Wilson was ...