Editorial: It is no wonder that some DUP MPs will be voting against the Windsor Framework this week

​Ian Paisley is voting against this week’s Windsor deal division, and for good reason. The DUP MP says that the deal does not come close to meeting the party’s seven tests. That claim might be a bit of a stretch – Rishi Sunak’s new arrangement can in fact be said to satisfy some of the tests, but that is in part because the tests were deliberately vague.

Matters have not been helped by the way in which for about a year the DUP began to talk about two issues that were not in the seven tests, the primacy of EU law and the European Court. Then, in the run-up to Mr Sunak’s announcement and afterwards it did not emphasise those points.

It is true that no-one gets all of what they want in a negotiation and it is only reasonable to give parties flexibility to move in times of high politics. That many unionists called for amendments to the protocol rather than its abolition was itself a massive compromise. But there is now a growing feeling that the Windsor Framework has been over-sold.

Downing Street has not, as was implied it would, come out to dispel concerns that the much touted green lane will not be so green. It is fair to say that some reputable hauliers are alarmed not just at the plans but the lack of unionist reaction to them. Nor have concerns about the Stormont brake been assuaged.

That this part of the deal is being voted upon looks like an attempt to bounce unionists into the deal, ahead of a Belfast Agreement love-in. But who wants to celebrate when the only interested US politicians including Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi seem increasingly partisan, as did President Biden when London began to realise the protocol was a disaster. It does not help that Bill Clinton is soon to share a platform with Gerry Adams. Repeated DUP calls for clarification seem not to be bearing fruit. In any event some key matters are clear.