Two years ago, the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) collapsed the power-sharing institutions at Stormont in protest at post-Brexit trading arrangements. At the time, I chatted to somebody with insight into unionist thinking. I remarked: “Surely they’re not that stupid?” They replied: “Yes, they [bleep] are.”
On Monday night, it seemed to come to an end. At about 1am, a bleary-eyed Jeffrey Donaldson announced that his party would be ending its boycott after examining the UK government’s latest offer to end the impasse. Donaldson said the deal would remove checks on goods moving within the UK, restore the UK’s internal market and end Northern Ireland’s automatic adherence to EU law. The details haven’t been confirmed yet.
