Brexit and the DUP

This blog has no time for the DUP which has brought down power sharing in Northern Ireland and is now making organised government in the UK impossible. It is a Leave party, but Northern Ireland voted Remain. It is against the Backstop but the majority in NI favour it. It claims to put the Union with the UK above Brexit. Yet in driving the nation to a No Deal Brexit by demanding changes to which the EU will never agree, it poses the greatest existential threat to the United Kingdom since its formation.

Because hard Brexit will create turmoil to everyday life in NI, as it will  require direct rule and  controls on the border between the two Irelands. That will build irresistible pressure to unite North with South, keeping NI in the EU, by removing it from the UK. Every poll reveals a majority for Irish unity in the event of a return to border controls. Far worse for the DUP than the backstop. Then of course there is Scotland, yanked out of the EU against its will. We know what comes next there.

May got herself mixed up with the DUP out of desperation at the loss of her majority. But the ERG climbed into bed with them out of choice because it thought itself clever. Something else to explain to the Tory Shires.