England, you wanted Brexit so you can pay for it

The message to be taken from today’s Downing Street proceedings is a simple one: England, you wanted Brexit so you can pay for it. That, in essence, is the meaning of the confidence and supply agreement brokered between the Conservatives and the Democratic Unionist Party.

That the DUP favoured Brexit too is of no account and nothing more than a cute irony. Nobody gets between an Irish politician and their pork. ’Twas ever thus, north and south of the border, and ’twill ever be thus. This is the word of the book, you know.

Enough too, please, of pretending to be shocked by the shocking discovery that politics is a shockingly transactional business.

Besides, the sums involved are almost laughably small. The DUP have received a promise of an extra £1 billion for Northern Ireland over the next two years. To put that into some context, Her Majesty’s government spent more than £770 billion in the last financial year.