Irish Examiner view: Allies better than friends

US president Joe Biden warned British prime minister Boris Johnson, not for the first time, that peace in the North must not be jeopardised as a result of complications from Brexit

British orime minister Boris Johnson has been told in no uncertain terms by US president Joe Biden that any dilution of the Northern Ireland protocol will not be tolerated.

Margaret Thatcher once voiced regret at having signed the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement that gave the government of Ireland an official consultative role in the affairs of the North. “It was the pressure from the Americans that made me sign the agreement,” she confessed to adviser Alistair McAlpine.

Boris Johnson, who recently expressed the wish to remain as British prime minister longer than Mrs Thatcher’s 11 years, would do well to remember her deeds as well as her words and be aware of the powerful Irish lobby in the US that stretches all the way to the White House.