The UK has secured elements of mitigation to the Irish Sea border that it agreed, but it is still a disaster and a betrayal

Much of what the party says is correct.

There is a possible exit from the Irish Sea border, if a majority in Stormont votes for it.

Goods moving in one direction, from Northern Ireland to the mainland, will be almost entirely unfettered, as was expected when the Brexit deal was agreed in principle last year. The EU has dropped its demand for exit declaration forms.

And there will be no permanent EU office in Belfast.

But some of the other things that the DUP cites are thin gruel. That there will be a three-month grace period is preferable to a cliff edge on January 1, but it is irrelevant over the longer term as to this extraordinary new Irish Sea border.

There is no escaping the horror of what has happened. The border, in the other direction to that mentioned above, from GB to NI, is a major one. No other major nation state in the world would hive off an integral part of its territory and put it economically in a different internal market and treat it as if it belonged to a different customs zone. It is, as Jim Allister said last October, a betrayal of the highest order.

It is, for the DUP, a specific betrayal by Boris Johnson, who used them to become Tory leader. Mr Johnson also turned on Nigel Dodds in the House of Commons after his dirty deal with Leo Varadkar, in much the same way that Julian Smith blamed the DUP for hesitancy in the talks, a man who never criticised the Sinn Fein vandalism that collapsed Stormont.

But it is at the same time a seminal moment for unionism. If there is not a rethink of tactics now then will there ever be? If unionists lack friends in London, are unionists in part to blame for that? Are unionists seen as financially mercenary? And what is the best response to endless concessions?

It is true, for example, that the DUP — as it says —opposed this NI Protocol. But it is also true that it did support a regulatory Irish Sea border early last October (albeit subject to a Stormont lock and on the understanding that NI was fully in the UK customs territory, not just nominally so).

The party made this concession under huge pressure. But it is at least arguable that this gave a ruthless PM a green light towards a full border.

It is a reminder that unionist generosity is just not working.

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