Given how the DUP and the UUP got less than 400,000 votes combined it is amazing that so few people have had so much political power over the destiny of the 66 million or so that did not vote for them. Even more so when – based on the latest polling from Ipsos-MORI – 40 million or so Britons don’t really care about the union with Northern Ireland. In fact 10 million or so Britons would rather Northern Ireland joined the Republic of Ireland…

Not only did the DUP put the kibosh on Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement, in Cabinet yesterday one of the strongest arguments advanced against ‘No Deal’ was that it would trigger the conditions in which under the Good Friday Agreement the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland would be obliged to call a border poll. Which is unacceptable to the DUP. The DUP’s leverage over the government has blocked Brexiting with May’s deal and with ‘No Deal’.