I negotiated a Northern Ireland deal that worked. Johnson’s Putinesque strategy will wreck it | Peter Hain

The 2007 settlement I worked on aimed to deepen the peace process - the vandals now in charge of Britain don't care about it

There is something Putinesque about the government's framing of its Northern Ireland protocol bill. It is almost the opposite of what Boris Johnson, his man in Belfast, Brandon Lewis, and the hardline backbenchers he's appeasing claim it to be.

Leave to one side that it trashes Britain's reputation. That it was conceived in London as a solution to the Northern Ireland Brexit conundrum. That it reneges on the withdrawal agreement Johnson and his lieutenant, David Frost, negotiated with the EU. Never mind that it breaks an international treaty the UK signed. Forget very old-fashioned notions of truth, sticking to your word, trust and obeying international law.