Recall of BIIGC shows that this is a perilous time for unionism

The government has confirmed what has been apparent for more than a year.

It will not stand up to Sinn Fein’s blackmail, which has brought Stormont to a stop unless there is an Irish language act, nor to the Irish government’s wholly partisan response to the stalemate, or its aggressive stance on Brexit.

By convening the British Irish Inter-Governmental Conference (BIIGC) it has bowed to nationalist demands.

London has been paralysed by Brexit but this decision is a clear sign of that weakness.

The way was prepared for the announcement by a Downing Street announcement of funding for Northern Ireland, as promised at the time of the DUP-Tory arrangement (funding which the DUP secured for the whole of the Province).

The fact of the BIIGG was further softened by an emphasis that the meeting will focus on east west matters. But this is a huge victory for Dublin.

Unionists — not just the DUP — need now to think hard about how to respond to this ominous signal from London.

Even if the latter introduces direct rule, perhaps because it feels it has no legal alternative, it is clearly intending to do so while publicly holding Dublin’s hand — a terrible outcome and a reward for the republican strategy of Simon Coveney and Leo Varadkar.

The weakness on the part of the UK is not hard to understand. Theresa May’s government is on life support, and might be unable to deliver anything other than Brexit In Name Only.

But whatever the reasons for the weakness, the proof of it will embolden Dublin, in the way that weakness in the EU negotiations has emboldened Brussels. And given that the almost inescapable logic of their combined stance on the Irish land border is either a meaningless UK-wide Brexit, which will cause the Tories to fear a voter rebellion, or a border down the Irish Sea, this is a highly perilous time for unionism.