We'll just have to wait
The DUP is to return to power sharing in Northern Ireland but only after the Westminster government has passed new legislation. Sir Jeffrey Donaldson says this new legislation will, according to the BBC, "remove checks on goods moving within the UK and remaining in NI, and end NI blindly following EU laws".
Well, good luck with that, is all I can say. We are already printing that goods are not to be exported to the EU on virtually everything, in order to reduce checks to a minimum. But NI remains in the EU Single Market and does not have a vote or a say in Brussels on what the rules of the Single Market are.
Has the government told them new rules will have to be passed by parliament or Stormont or that there will be a veto? We just don’t know and nor do we know how any of this is compatible with the Windsor Framework. The deal the government was forced to negotiate with Brussels to tidy up the mess left by the original Brexit negotiations and it was the terms of the Windsor Framework that the DUP was opposed to.
Already the even more ultra loyalists including Kate Hoey, a former Labour MP who campaigned for Brexit are screaming betrayal.
But I would be far more worried about the reaction of Brussels, we can only hope the British government has cleared this deal with the EU.
If Brussels has not given this deal the nod of approval, we are, as the Tories like to say, “back to square one”. The Windsor Framework will be under threat, and if they have it is hard to see what reassurances the DUP has been given.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media