THE sudden sidelining of the DUP at Westminster, with Prime Minister Theresa May reaching out to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, has forced differences of opinion within the unionist party out into the open.
DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson promptly mentioned a customs union, albeit as a transitional measure, before distancing himself from the idea the next day.
Fellow MP Sammy Wilson continues to push the hardest of Brexit lines. Wilson has always been the most stalwart of the Brexiteers within the parliamentary party, so Donaldson's wobbling is likelier to reflect pragmatic panic among his colleagues.
However, one cabinet minister told the influential Politico website: "The DUP if anything have moved further away [from the government]. Their demands are almost less reasonable than Labour's."
Being sidelined clears the way to a more cynical and typical pragmatism.
It means the DUP can sit back and let others deliver a soft Brexit for it, while it roars and flag-waves from the back benches.
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The DUP has condemned May for turning to Corbyn.
"It remains to be seen if sub-contracting out the future of Brexit to Jeremy Corbyn, someone whom the Conservatives have demonised for four years, will end happily," the party said.
But the DUP has notably stopped short of demonising Corbyn itself, because threatening to do business with Labour is its ultimate hold over the Tories and one it has to at least pretend to keep plausible.
The DUP held talks with Labour while negotiating its confidence and supply agreement with the Conservatives two years ago and both parties have been careful not to fall out since, occasionally collaborating on votes against the government.
In 2017, Sammy Wilson threatened to put Corbyn in Number 10 over plans to manage Brexit by devolving more powers to Stormont.
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Expect to hear more on devolving Brexit powers to Stormont now the so-called 'Stormont lock' has been expanded to a 'devo lock' - a British government proposal granting backstop powers to Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh.
Any nationalist nervousness at this would be misplaced.
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London would still have to maintain Northern Ireland's open border and backstop alignment with the EU as an international treaty obligation.
The Stormont lock is about minimising the sea border within the UK, by stopping Britain diverging from the same backstop rules as Northern Ireland.
Extending that power to Wales and Scotland would create a triple lock against Britain leaving customs union and single market alignment with the EU.
This is a poisoned chalice for unionists, as it could lead to mounting English resentment.
Nationalists should marvel at a policy that would give them a veto over Britain's most fundamental levers of economic policy.
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The Times has reported that an unnamed DUP MP approached hardline Brexiteer colleagues in the European Research Group and suggested they steal the Mace, without which MPs cannot sit, in order to stop the Commons voting to delay Brexit.
What could have given a Northern Ireland MP that idea? Could it have been the famous event in 1972 when nationalist MP Bernadette Devlin grabbed the Mace while Home Secretary Reginald Maudling was making a statement on Bloody Sunday?
At least the DUP MP did not suggest following through with Devlin's intention of hitting the home secretary over the head with it.
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Aontú, the party founded by TD Paedar Tóibín after he quit Sinn Féin over abortion, is barely registering in the polls.
However, it has scored one concrete achievement ahead of next month's council elections.
Sinn Féin is omitting any mention of abortion from its election leaflets, restricting its list of "equality and rights for all" to "Acht Gaeilge, marriage equality and legacy rights".
In the last attempt at a Stormont deal, gay people were abandoned. Next time it will be women.
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NHS reform is pressing ahead in Stormont's absence, with health professionals increasingly expressing the view that Stormont's absence is the best thing for it.
In the latest example of why politicians only get in the way, all five main parties have attended a public meeting in Lurgan to object to Department of Health plans for breast cancer out-patient care.
Services will be centralised at three hospitals - Altnagelvin, Antrim and Ulster - down from the present five, which include Belfast City and Craigavon, where recruitment issues caused a crisis in breast cancer waiting times three years ago.
A surgeon from Craigavon attended the meeting in a personal capacity to say she questioned the methodology of choosing which centres to close.
However, politicians object to any closure. Centralisation is in accordance with the 2016 Bengoa report, which the DUP and Sinn Féin commissioned and all Stormont parties welcomed.
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The government has begun rushing Brexit legislation through Westminster using procedures normally associated with rubber-stamping laws for Northern Ireland, as MPs have rather sniffily noted.
Independent unionist Lady Sylvia Hermon had to remind the Commons that Northern Ireland has been governed almost entirely like this for the past three years.
George Bernard Shaw used to joke about "home rule for England". A century on, Brexit has brought us direct rule for England.
newton@irishnews.com
