Stubborn DUP had a better deal and blew it

AT the 2018 DUP conference and in subsequent interviews, the party leader, Arlene Foster, argued that the Brexit withdrawal agreement must be replaced by a better deal. However, the DUP had a much better deal in place — and removed it from the table.

In December 2017, the DUP publicly forced the Prime Minister, Theresa May, to insert Paragraph 50 into the first-stage agreement,with the clause that “no new regulatory barriers develop between Northern Ireland and there st of the UK, unless consistent with the 1998 Agreement, the NI Executive and Assembly agree that distinct arrangements are appropriate for Northern Ireland”.

That veto was rendered null and void by the D UP when, in February 2018, its collective leadership walked out of negotiations to reinstate that same NI Executive and Assembly and this paragraph had to be removed from the March 19, 2018 draft B rex it withdrawal agreement, because of this, ie no Stormont, no Paragraph50.

In short, the DUP created a regulatory border down the Irish Sea the moment it walked out of talks to reinstate Stormont.

There was a better deal in place and the DUP threw the baby out with the bath water — and all for the sake of an Irish Language Act.

DR BERNARD J MULHOLLAND Belfast

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