I fear the events of the week regarding Downing Street rule-breaking may rather put anything I say about goings on in Parliament into the shade, however I am nothing if not an eternal optimist, so let’s take a quick sweep across Britain shall we?

Westminster

One of the most significant challenges of Brexit was always the Northern Irish border, and the challenges of respecting the Good Friday Agreement requirements whilst implementing appropriate and necessary checks on goods crossing between the UK and the EU. Having declared absolute victory with his Brexit deal and the accompanying Northern Ireland protocol, the PM has now found his triumph rather spoilt, and decided that in its present form, it has to go.

Introducing the proposals to…unilaterally alter… the protocol in legislation next year, the Foreign Secretary (who now holds the somewhat poisoned chalice of dealing with Brexit issues) announced that prior to drafting the legislation, the Government will be consulting businesses and people in Northern Ireland. This should prove a very interesting exercise on several different levels.

The first one is that polling demonstrates that people in Northern Ireland are overwhelmingly in favour of the protocol as it currently stands, so the Government might expect not to receive that much support for their proposals. Now, as the Channel 4 privatisation consultation showed, the Government are not opposed to going against overwhelming public opinion when they wish to, but the exercise they conduct will have to be absolutely perfect for it to avoid accusations of being a pre-determined tick-box one.

The second is that the whole thing is layered with the always complicated politics of Northern Ireland. We’ve already seen this with the recent elections and the stalled formation of the new Executive, something bound tightly up with the protocol. It will be interesting to see how the Government tries to balance and take account of the strong views on all sides, whilst respecting the local political processes.

The third is a double reiteration of parliamentary sovereignty. It has been pointed out that attempts to bypass the protocol in the manner proposed by the Government likely constitute a breach of international law (though the Government claims it does now). The matter will no doubt come up in the consultation, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see some degree of outrage from lawyers offended at the concept. Although the Government have said they won’t release the legal advice that led them to the conclusion that it is lawful, it seems to us that that is important information in order to respond properly to the consultation. The more dramatic the action, the greater the need for better evidence.

In the UK system, Parliamentary Sovereignty means that in principle there’s nothing to stop Parliament passing legislation that breaks international law, and as we’ve seen recently in cases as this is primary legislation it would be near impossible to successfully challenge the breach in the domestic courts. In their consultation however, the Government better be prepared to argue the point, and demonstrate that they’ve taken account of this. Ignoring it would be a very poor decision for the UK’s international image, if nothing else.

Wales

A little controversy in Cardiff this week over marine protection areas around the Welsh Coast where pressure is mounting for the Welsh Government to provide a plan for the future of the zones, including consultations on siting and specific protections to be implemented. Though there was consultation on the issue back in 2012, it was heavily criticised by key stakeholders, and little action has subsequently been taken. With environmental issues rising up the agenda like a whale from the bathypelagic to the epipelagic (little joke there for my marine biologist friends), it might be that they are forced to take action sooner than the had anticipated.