Editorial: The coming Westminster vote on the Windsor Framework forces the need for unionist clarity on the deal

The DUP and Ulster Unionists have been taking their time to consider the Windsor Framework and rightly so.​

It will be the decisions of the leadership of those two parties, and not the conclusions of the DUP consultative panel, that will matter.

An immediate rejection of the Windsor Framework would have resulted in scorn being poured on unionists as rejectionists and naysayers. They would have been accused of searching for lundies and anti peace.

Already some imagery coming out of events in the US suggests a transatlantic establishment that is happy to move on without unionists. This is hypocritical and outrageous, given that that same establishment uttered not a word about Sinn Fein keeping down Stormont for three years until it got its Irish Language Act. But getting angry does not expose such hypocrisy, but rather is used to depict unionists as always saying no, and so entrenches the hypocrites. While saying no is always used against unionists, even if said for good reason, unionists can’t abandon their core principles just to seem nice. The Windsor Framework lessens the impact of the Irish Sea border but does not remove its underlying essence, that weeks ago the DUP was emphasising.

Now London is trying to force the matter with a vote on the aspect of Windsor Framework that it believes will appeal to unionists. This seems cynical, and yet it does call for decisions now.

The DUP and UUP will take their own decisions but there needs to be a large body of unionists who say we welcome London’s recent efforts to recover some ground from the protocol disaster, we badly want Northern Ireland to function as a comfortable place for everyone and we will try to bring that about through normal politics, but we can never accept, and will certainly not vote for, fundamental breaches to the Union.