It is Boris Johnson’s job to make Brexit work, not ignore it or breach it unilaterally

Editorial: Sooner or later Mr Johnson and Ms Truss will need the EU’s assistance to get Brexit done

(Dave Brown)

Six years on from the EU referendum, Britain is still wondering how to make it work – and in particular, how it can be made compatible with the Good Friday Agreement.

The conclusion may soon dawn on those concerned that the agreement is actually incompatible with any type of Brexit likely to be acceptable to this government – logically, legally, practically or politically. The current arrangement – the Northern Ireland protocol – may be highly unsatisfactory in some respects, but, as so often in politics, it may be the best option still available – the one that comes closest to mutual compatibility.

That is, after all, how it emerged as the least bad option during the traumatic and exhaustive debates that followed the referendum. It is amenable to change in its practical application, through the existing machinery of negotiation via a joint committee, even if that is slow and requires compromise on the part of the unwilling British. The protocol is, in short, all that stands between the UK and a trade war with the European Union. It hardly needs pointing out how undesirable that would be, during a cost of living crisis and probably a recession – and nor would it make the political or economic situation in Northern Ireland any easier.