but a worthy one in the cause of the good friday agreement, in the cause of protecting the peace. it was the right thing to do and ended our constitutional crisis. it meant our country could leave the eu, free and with real choices for the future. of course we wanted to negotiate something better. if it had not meant for the madness of the surrender act, we could have done so. so we worried right from the start that the protocol would not take the strain if not handled sensitively. as it has turned out, we were right. the arrangements have begun to come apart even more quickly than we feared. thanks to the eu s heavy handed actions, cross community political risk support for the protocol has collapsed. businesses, political parties, the institutions and indeed all in northern ireland now face instability and disruption. we can still solve these problems. i set