Ulster Unionists need to convince the electorate they are a serious alternative and have a distinct offer: taking devolution seriously; stability, competence, and credibility; a confident, reforming unionism that makes a positive case for the Union.
The Protocol achieved for the republican movement where the IRA failed. Customs declarations and checks are imposed on British internal trade – this is an intolerable and Union-dismantling imposition.
Also: SNP plunged into fresh controversy over misleading claim about healthcare spending, whilst Kate Forbes gears up for an internal battle over the Scottish Government’s income tax plans.
Also: Scottish Government’s legal regulation reforms denounced by judges and lawyers; Ross offers to work with Nationalist rebels to break Greens’ grip on government; new scandal for PSNI as High Court finds it illegally disciplined officers.
Recent polling shows the party well ahead of both the UUP and the TUV, meaning the current deadlock would simply be reproduced.
Of the party’s eight Members of Parliament, four struck a sceptical or hostile note whilst the others took a more reserved or conciliatory view.
Once done, it will be near-impossible to back down with Stormont elections looming. Can the Government secure the deal it needs?
Also: DUP leader threatens early Stormont election over the Protocol; Scottish Labour councillor defects to the Conservatives.
Also: SNP’s nuclear hypocrisy forces MoD to consider relocating Trident even though an independent Scotland would join NATO.
A united front against the sea border might be their best chance – regardless of the headaches it causes in Dublin, Brussels, or London.
The problem with conjuring the threat of republican terrorism to oppose a land border is the signal it sends to their loyalist counterparts.
Also: Spotlight on the literal handful of MPs providing Stormont’s entire opposition; and Scottish Tories offer a budget deal to the SNP.
Also: Democratic Unionists ‘under pressure’ over Brexit u-turn; and Gove backs Bowie’s criticism of SNP over no-deal preparations.
Ultimately, they may reveal less about Brexit and more about the longer-term trends in Northern Ireland’s political landscape.
Which is a greater affront to democratic government: a rump of hereditary legislators in an advisory chamber, or subjecting almost two million citizens to neo-colonial government by Brussels?