Also: DUP and Heaton-Harris in staring match over extra funding as Rishi Sunak rules out coalition with the Unionists at Westminster.
Recent polling shows the party well ahead of both the UUP and the TUV, meaning the current deadlock would simply be reproduced.
This vote must be chalked up as a convincing win for Sunak – and a sign that Johnson and Truss have less support among their colleagues than one might have thought.
It will give cover to Conservative opponents of the deal. But the crucial question is the future of Stormont, and on that the Unionists are silent.
They didn’t get a surge when the UK Internal Market Act passed and saw only a temporary one after their Supreme Court defeat. What about now?
The Prime Minister has no way of even trying to ensure the dispute is over by April except capitulating to the EU.
Also: having missed his self-imposed deadline of October 28th, Heaton-Harris changes the law to push Stormont vote back to April.
More work is needed to ensure proper protection for ex-servicemen and give victims’ families a chance at the truth.
It is worth remembering that the current backlash would be much worse had the Government not subsequently acted to unilaterally extend ‘grace periods’.
The latest twist in the running battle over getting ‘Legislative Consent Motions’ sees the Territorial Offices overruled.
His expertise and long experience will be useful if the Government does go ahead with triggering Article 16.
Also: Ministers give opponents of Troubles amnesty six weeks to propose alternatives and square off to the devocrats over freeports.
An agreement to extend grace periods would avoid the Government having to do so unilaterally, as it did previously.
It is a shame that IRA violence – and Westminster neglect – undid the hopeful and constructive spirit in which Stormont was born.
There is probably nowhere else in the United Kingdom where this shabby, universally-derided Bill would be contemplated.