Jamie Bryson: The DUP cannot backslide from their fundamental commitments and Chris Heaton-Harris and Steve Baker need to live with that

If unionists accept the Protocol Framework, then this is an acceptance of second class citizenship within the United Kingdom and a demonstration of a pathetic weakness to operate power sharing which is in fact more about the ethos that ‘unionism must give, and nationalism must get’, rather than genuine partnership. The DUP have made fundamental commitments. There can be no backsliding on these. Baker, Heaton-Harris and the rest may not like that reality, but they must learn to live with it because it isn’t changing.

Baker’s recent analysis equates protocol opposition to opposition to the Belfast Agreement. This shows the full extent of how misguided he actually is. The protocol dismantles the Belfast Agreement, and illuminates it for what it is – a fundamental fraud and deceit. That Baker has yet to understand this is somewhat startling.

Editorial: Once ‘hardline’ Brexiteer Baker puts unhelpful pressure on the DUP

The one time self-proclaimed ‘hardman’ of Brexit is as wet as the Irish Sea. The moment ministerial office beckoned, he forsook all of that which he claimed to stand for and now parades around Northern Ireland pontificating about how we must accept that which he would never accept in his part of the United Kingdom. The best contribution Steve Baker can make is to go back to Wycombe and focus on those issues rather than coming to NI and trying to tell unionists in this part of the UK what to do. He ought to take a lesson from history: that approach never ends well.

Jamie Bryson, NI Director of Centre for the Union, Donaghadee