England might hope that football’s coming home but Boris needs an interventionist God to solve his protocol problem

Is there any chance that Boris Johnson might seek divine intervention to help him resolve the Brexit conundrum?

Last month his spiritual credentials were formally confirmed.  

Britain’s Catholic Church gave him an ‘access all areas’ pass to its London headquarters. It allowed him and his fiancée Carrie Symonds – wife number three of Boris 1^st –  to hold their  wedding on Saturday May 22^nd at Westminster Cathedral, the mother church of Catholicism in England and Wales.

Because of the pandemic and the complications caused by the Delta variant, there is no possibility of the Catholic Prime Minister making his way to the perimeter of the Common Travel Area to the Catholic place of pilgrimage, Lough Derg in Co. Donegal.  

But might he be willing to seek the intercession of Saint Jude or commit himself to a version of the Nine Fridays in pursuit of Brexit-linked inspiration?

The person who once worked tirelessly as a version of a Boris spiritual advisor, Dominic Cummings, is gone. Indeed, he has turned treacherous.  

Fellow Catholic, Joe Biden, has his problems with the US bishops – not to be linked in any theological interpretation with the stance taken by Boris, the officially-confirmed Catholic, and his government with the provision of abortion services in Northern Ireland.

It is a tad unfair that Biden, just like Cummings, is giving Boris grief – in this instance on the Brexit question.

Even Boris might not have the brass neck to toss his Health Minister, ‘hopeless Hancock’, overboard on foot of his dalliances.  

Boris could do with a second heavenly intercession in the next fortnight as he faces difficult Brexit-related decisions.

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Sport retains the bread and circuses properties identified by the poet Juvenal in Roman times. Football is coming home next Tuesday when England will play Germany at Wembley. 

Boris Johnson could do with Gareth Southgate’s young team advancing to the quarter-final stages of the Euro competition.

21 years ago, Saturday June 21^st 2000, I was on the stadium terraces in the Belgian city of Charleroi when England recorded their first victory over Germany in a competitive match since the 1966 World Cup.

Beckham, Scholes, Gary Neville and Michael Owen all lined out for England in that match.  Their German opponents included the current RTE pundit, Dietmar Hamann.  

Alan Shearer’s headed second-half winning goal is not the abiding memory from that afternoon. It is the sight and sounds of large groups of English fans, their arms outstretched like the wings of a plane, belting out the theme music from The Dambusters film.  

In their minds they were British pilots, lining up to drop bombs on German cities during World War Two. 

The amorous adventures of Britain’s Health Minister, Matt Hancock, briefly distracted the tabloid headline writers on Friday. But they have been revving up big-time for the Wembley joust with the Germans on Tuesday.

If the outcome in Euro Group F had resulted in France, not Germany, qualifying to line up against England a different but equally combative version of the pre-match build-up would be playing out.  

The rivalry with the Germans has some of its roots in the two World Wars of the last century.  

The antagonism towards the French goes back hundreds of years further. If they were allies in 1914-18 and in 1939-45, De Gaulle’s decision to veto Britain’s application to join the European Economic Community in 1963 and again in 1967 gave expression to a mutual distrust, deeply embedded in the DNA.     

If England beat Germany at Wembley on Tuesday, Sweden or Ukraine would be their quarter final rivals in Rome on July 3^rd.  If they managed to cross that hurdle, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Wales or Denmark would provide the opposition on July 7^th.  

The final is scheduled to take place at Wembley, on July 11^th, the eve of the high point of Northern Ireland’s marching season, July 12^th.

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Sport has such a magical capacity to captivate us. If England knock Germany out of the Euro competition on Tuesday, they will lift the national mood in a significant way. 

Such events that absorb the masses rarely influence or shape government policy. But they have the potential to affect timing and roll-out.

Boris Johnson is feeling the heat from Tory backbenchers and huge swathes of impatient British society over his government’s handling of the pandemic. The bounce they received over their vaccine delivery programme is being challenged by the spread of the Delta variant and the resultant stalled lifting of restrictions.

Even Boris might not have the brass neck to toss his Health Minister, ‘hopeless Hancock’, overboard on foot of his dalliances.  

Ditching him would at best fill space in the news cycle churn for a brief period. But in the long term it could invite comparisons with the Prime Minister’s own behaviour in his pre-card-carrying Catholic stage.

The policy direction Boris must decide and articulate in the next fortnight is his government’s attitude to the Brexit deal it negotiated with the European Union and its stance in relation to the Northern Ireland protocol.

In recent days Northern Ireland Office ‘sources’ have indicated that significant changes are coming in the ways the protocol operates.  

Mr Johnson is conscious of how the main unionist voice in Northern Ireland, the DUP, the only one of the five major parties that supported the UK leaving the European Union, has convulsed itself over the impact of the protocol.  

He knows too that after a brief period when the traditionalists outmanoeuvred the pragmatists in the DUP, Jeffrey Donaldson has replaced Edwin Poots as party leader.  

Edwin, as party leader but not First Minister was always going to struggle to get access and face time in Downing Street. Jeffrey, long before this week’s party leadership coronation, is a seasoned visitor to No 10.

He was the DUP party whip who signed the Confidence and Supply Agreement with Theresa May’s government at the Downing Street table in June 2017. He was a participant when the DUP subsequently abandoned her and defected to team Boris.

As the Euro championships build towards a Wembley final, Boris and his Brexit negotiator, David Frost, must decide the next moves in their Brexit strategy.  

Is it to be compromise or confrontation with Brussels? Is there sufficient on the table to claim yet one more British victory over Europe?  Or will the bellicose stance taken by Lord Frost continue? 

Whatever is on offer, will it be enough to allow Jeffrey sell it as progress, ‘moving in the right direction’ or has Jim Allister got a windy DUP party heading towards an early Stormont elections stance? 

The Euro winners and the British government Brexit strategy will be decided before July 12^th.

Whatever about football coming home, Sir Jeffrey will be coming home soon from Westminster to Northern Ireland. And Boris will have an influence on the match ahead of him.

Fun and games. But certainly not the silly season.