{"id":5276,"date":"2019-01-10T11:35:17","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T11:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qpol.qub.ac.uk\/?p=5276"},"modified":"2019-01-10T11:35:17","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T11:35:17","slug":"principle-of-consent-in-ni-uk-governments-brexit-proposals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/principle-of-consent-in-ni-uk-governments-brexit-proposals\/","title":{"rendered":"Breached or Protected? The \u2018principle\u2019 of consent in Northern Ireland and the UK government\u2019s Brexit proposals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The policy paper on UK government commitments to Northern Ireland and its integral place in the United Kingdom<\/a> (published 9 January 2019) is a remarkable document. On the one hand, it is a direct assurance to unionists that Brexit, and specifically the Protocol on Ireland\/Northern Ireland in the Withdrawal Agreement, poses no threat to the Union. On the other hand, it at least implies that the Union is not to be taken for granted. For, it notes, \u2018the Union\u2019 of the United Kingdom \u2018will only endure\u2019 with the \u2018consent of the people of Northern Ireland\u2019 \u2013 and if the government does not listen to \u2018the people and communities there who do not want a return to a hard border\u2019 then, to put it bluntly, they are less likely to support the Union (paragraph 4). <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is particularly interesting because the principle of consent has traditionally been seen as a tenet of the 1998 Agreement intended to reassure unionists, the assumption being that the unionist view in Northern Ireland was firmly that of the majority. The UK policy paper hints at an interesting alternative prospect in light of Brexit: that this unionist majority is likely to dissipate if Brexit results in a hard Irish border or severe disruption to daily life in Northern Ireland. As such, the policy paper is intended to show that the best possible protection of the Union is to be found in the Withdrawal Agreement, with its Protocol that seeks to both avoid a hard border and uphold the principle of consent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here<\/a> to continue reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article originally appeared on the LSE Brexit blog.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0featured\u00a0image<\/a>\u00a0has been used courtesy of a\u00a0Creative Commons license.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A long read from Prof David Phinnemore and Dr Katy Hayward following the government’s publishing of its policy paper that attempts to counter unionist concerns about the Withdrawal Agreement and its potential impact on Northern Ireland\u2019s place in the United Kingdom. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2478,"featured_media":5219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"mb":[],"acf":{"authors":{"simple_value_formatted":"