Britain’s bill to rip up the Northern Ireland protocol is a terrible idea

When the Conservatives won the 2019 general election, they did so on the promise of getting Brexit done. A withdrawal agreement with the eu soon followed. But far from being done, that deal is now being unravelled by the Tories themselves. On June 13th, the government introduced a bill that would give it powers to override large chunks of the Northern Ireland protocol. This bit of the treaty keeps the province (but not Great Britain) in the European Union’s single market for goods, ensuring that there are no border controls on the island of Ireland but creating a customs and regulatory border in the Irish Sea instead.