evidence: Consent can be deemed to be granted on the basis of a simple majority. There are measures to assess cross-community support: either a majority of both unionists and nationalists, or a weighted majority (60% approval overall, with 40% of unionist and 40% nationalist Assembly member supporting it). If this is achieved, it will be eight years before another vote is held. If it gets a majority but without cross-community consent, the UK Government will launch an independent review into the functioning of the Protocol and another vote will take place after four years. [...] Unionists, the majority of whom were pro-Leave, object to the Protocol on the grounds that it treats Northern Ireland differently to the rest of the UK. All the unionist parties in Northern Ireland officially want the Protocol to be scrapped on the grounds of its disruption to the UK internal market. They also object to the democratic deficit faced by Northern Ireland in following EU rules with no say on those rules. Nationalist and non-aligned parties were strongly pro-Remain. They also resent the Protocol but on different grounds, namely the fact that it has been brought about through Brexit, which the majority of people in Northern Ireland voted against. They argue that the Protocol needs to be made to work, and through a joint UK-EU approach, in order to create the stability needed for the potential benefits from it (such as through free access to the single market) to be realised.