The DUP is caught on the horns of a Brexit dilemma

There is a magnificent paradox – the Taj Mahal of paradoxes, let’s hope NOT the RMS Titanic of paradoxes – in the opposition of Northern Ireland’s DUP to Boris Johnson’s Brexit.

Johnson’s replacement to the backstop, by design, keeps the province much more closely aligned with the tax and business rules of the EU than would be true of Great Britain. It does so in order to keep the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland free of friction and free of opportunities for smugglers and terrorists to return to their toxic ways of yore.

For the DUP, this alignment introduces a fat new border between NI and GB, in the form of customs and regulatory checks in the Irish Sea. And of course it is wholly understandable that any such border will trouble unionists.

But it is also that alignment which means Northern Ireland’s economy and prosperity will be much more influenced by the economic performance of the Republic of Ireland and the EU than would be true of the rest of the UK.