the peace process [...] is about stabilising the Northern Ireland state, parking the constitutional question to avoid it being a distraction, and governing it under cross-community consensus within the UK. Since Unionism by definition poses no democratic threat to the status of NI as part of the UK, it follows that there is a need to find ways to disincentivise the Irish unity case, which the NI Protocol achieves by ensuring there is no border within the island of Ireland [...]

To remove the protocol is therefore to remove a disincentive for Irish unity; [...] which would kickstart a future unity campaign. [...] Irish reunification would move from being a solution in search of a problem, to a solution that solves many problems, enabling full access to the single market to be reinstated for the whole island and finally an escape from the Johnson Tory party's political nihilism.