The Death of the Union Party is putting Northern Ireland’s status at risk

The sight of Arlene and Boris embracing at the DUP conference and Rees Mogg at a DUP fund raiser shows clearly that the DUP have joined the little Englanders in the asylum.

The DUP’s antics seem unapologetically party first, not the war cry of old “For God and Ulster”.

The DUP leadership have been conducting themselves in a way that is putting Northern Ireland’s constitutional status at risk, through the corrosive process they have engaged in, something the Provos could only have dreamed off.

Grassroot Tories and ordinary voters in England see that a party that few had heard of, who through a confidence and supply agreement were “pork barrelled” £1 billion and now they are screwing over the very same government, and think what’s going on?

They (N.I.) also get an annual payment of £10 billion without which the province would be a third world country. So, it would be fair of Jonny English to ask, what’s in this relationship for us? Clearly, absolutely nothing.

The DUP are in effect are jeopardising our collective futures and those of our children.

To be fair, as I always try to be, Sein Fein have been relatively quiet. This could be a political tactic of Machiavellian proportions, say nothing, as they believe the DUP are self-harming (the Union) or they have just nothing useful to contribute to the debate.

More likely to be the latter.

Well, Donald Tusk and Jean Claude Juncker, their intransigence over the backstop even to me as a Remainer is reaching breaking point.

Furthermore, the Irish government’s position has been particularly odd, in that they have got stuck in a backstop vortex with the UK, their single largest export market in Europe, a UK government that provided £7 bailout in 2010 an additional backdoor bailout by UK banks to Irish subsidiaries of £14 billion and the country with which it has the closest personal and cultural links.

Have I missed something?

This negotiating process as someone said, is the greatest failure of British state craft since Suez, I am inclined to agree.

Though, Simon and Leo’s statecraft has not been that smart either, in that they have got themselves into a position where they cannot act as the honest broker.

This process should not be rocket science, so please get it sorted. If not sorted, it will only have negative consequences for ordinary working-class families on this island.

Negative consequences, no not for Jacob Rees Mogg whose hedge fund has relocated to Dublin, so much for his confidence in a post Brexit UK or for Boris Johnson, both who seem to have a mindless nostalgia “for a country that does not exist”.

Suneil Sharma, Belfast