Comment

It was given and immediate welcome by every business group, and every business leader (that we’re aware of), and it was also given a warm welcome. Credit is due to the UK Government and the EU for coming up with what looks very much like the best possible solution to a thorny problem.

Most importantly for business here, and most importantly for the local economy, the Framework allows Northern Ireland to continue to reap the advantages that it has enjoyed under the Protocol. But, at the same time, it solves most of the issues affecting businesses here in specific sectors.

However, there is a ‘but’. Because the Windsor Agreement allows this region to hang on to the huge strategic advantage of EU and UK market access, the party holding all the aces, the DUP, still isn’t convinced.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and his merry men (and women) continue to hold the economy and the population here to ransom, but not while they wait for the UK Government to do something. It’s done something and still we have to wait for one party to cogitate, discuss, ruminate and eventually come to a decision.

There is very little sympathy for the hardliners of the DUP either at Westminster (bar a handful of right wingers) or amongst the UK population as a whole. The reaction in the national media to the Windsor Framework provided crystal clear evidence that they’re seen as a small, minority party of zealots.

The DUP leader has set up a group of assorted party members, including Dame Arlene Foster and Peter Robinson, to hold his hand and help him come up with an agreed response. If the Man From Dromore says yes, then they’ll be instrumental in packaging it all up as a victory for the DUP’s Stormont boycott stance.

If he says no, it’s very hard to see what the next step for the DUP can be. It would sound the death knell for devolved government here and put an end to planned celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which include a visit by US President Joe Biden.

What’s more, to say no would be to cast the DUP as pariahs of UK politics. When it come to a vote in the House of Commons, the Windsor Framework will breeze through with Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party joining forces with the vast bulk of Tories.

So there’s an expectation that Sir Jeffrey will say yes. He and his party might well ask for a clarification or two, they might want to be seen to tinker here and there, but they’ve little option but to take the deal and present it as a victory to their constituency. Or most of it. When it comes to the likes of Jim Allister and others without any electoral mandate, there’s simply no pleasing some people.

The mood music seems to say so, the clear choreography of Biden’s visit and what’s going on the background says so, and the combined might of the UK Government, Her Majesty’s Opposition and virtually entire UK population says so.

Add to that, although it will matter little to Sir Jeffrey, the Irish Government en bloc and the Irish population as a whole.

It will be a bit hard to say no once again. That said, this is Northern Ireland. Political logic counts for little.