I think this has been the case since 2016 or when ever the referendum was. It became a catchall for any ills, EU related or not.
As for getting on with it, that would be great but Frost and Johnson definitely agreed the deal with an eye on re-negotiating. ie. in bad faith.
It's hard to imagine the EU backing down on this.
Triggering the article does very little by itself legally. Its basically sending an email asking the EU to attend a meeting, the U.K. have to meet a threshold that it is triggering the article based on significant, financial, societal or environmental distress on behalf of NI - that’s a reach. But if it’s done it just results in talks.
It’s more a political statement than holding any real legal weight. NI obviously is the strongest link between the U.K. and EU in terms of alliance given the free market, movement and the judiciary. It’s just a political attack on that or a kite to test boundaries.
If it is triggered it leaves the vacuum for counter measures in terms of trade and suspending the entire Brexit agreement.
Then you are looking at the damage globally, this won’t go down well with the US administration, who we know have skin in the game in terms of NI personally in terms of the current administration but also generally given their role in the peace process and their own canavassing of their domestic Irish American vote.
If it wasn’t for the violence and rising tensions due to the politicking around this, I’d be really curious to see how this would play out if it was triggered .
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