Article 39VS2 In rejecting this EU deal, the DUP has sold Northern Ireland down the river | Brian Lucey

In rejecting this EU deal, the DUP has sold Northern Ireland down the river | Brian Lucey

by
Brian Lucey
from Economics | The Guardian on (#39VS2)

The solution would have boosted the North's economy by allowing it to remain economically part of the EU. The DUP has sacrificed its voters' interests

So to the legions of experts required to make any sense of Northern Ireland we may now need to add lexicographers or semioticians. Where does the line, the border as it were, blur between regulatory "non-divergence" and "convergence" and "alignment"?

The EU-UK draft agreement that was on the table on Monday, suggests that, in all but name, Northern Ireland would have remained a part of the EU. Achieving the UK government's agreement on this was a truly momentous achievement for Irish prime minister Leo Varadker, derided by the Brexiter ultras as being naive and out of his depth. This has been an international-relations baptism of fire, it is true, but he has come through unscathed. That the British government withdrew its own proposal was, to borrow a phrase once used by the former taoiseach Charles Haughey, "grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre, and unprecedented". It is now unclear that it will be back on the table, which is a pity as it had the great merit of ambiguity. But the proposal also throws up as many questions as it answers - nothing new in the context of either Northern Ireland or the EU's dealings with crises.

Related: Theresa May seeks to rescue Brexit deal as Dublin says it won't back down - Politics live

Counties and customs

Related: Theresa May must call the DUP's bluff - this EU deal has to happen | Simon Jenkins

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