Editorial: Welcome signs of unionist harmony amid ongoing concerns over the Irish Sea border

​​This week the Ulster Unionist MLA Robbie Butler tweeted out a picture of himself with his party leader Doug Beattie and the DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson MP and deputy Gavin Robinson MP.

The quartet were enjoying having a coffee together. Did their gathering have greater significance than that? Perhaps not, perhaps they were just having a friendly chat. It is good to see harmony between the two biggest unionist parties.

The unionist vote has not been growing in recent elections, indeed it is the smallest that it has ever been, despite unionist voters having had an array of electoral choices, including three main parties – an increasingly liberal UUP, a mainstream DUP and a firm TUV.

They all have their merits. But there has been a notable divergence between the Ulster Unionists and the DUP. Some years ago the former was criticising the latter for concessions too far on matters such as the Irish language and legacy. As it happens this newspaper's editorial position was in agreement with the UUP. Latterly, the UUP has been criticising the DUP from a perspective that can close to Alliance – and on those occasions our sympathies have been with the DUP. After being far to fast to adopt a position of pragmatism on the Irish Sea border, the DUP toughened its position and was right to withdraw from Stormont – an approach that helped secure modifications to the NI Protocol. London also hardened its position, first under Boris Johnson, the protocol’s architect. Mr Sunak then secured concessions via the Windsor Framework. This is most welcome but it is increasingly clear that a major trade frontier remains. The government has declined opportunities to dispel deep concerns about it. The DUP is right thus to talk of ongoing "lack of trust" over the framework. We hope all unionists rally round the need for such trust to be built.