Opinion

Allison Morris: DUP should be nervous about Boris Johnson's Brexit backstop intentions

Dominic Cummings, political strategist and special adviser to British prime minister Boris Johnson.&nbsp;<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;; ">We&rsquo;ve been told the has step-planned all of this out</span>&nbsp;
Dominic Cummings, political strategist and special adviser to British prime minister Boris Johnson. We’ve been told the has step-planned a Dominic Cummings, political strategist and special adviser to British prime minister Boris Johnson. We’ve been told the has step-planned all of this out 

For the last three years we’ve consistently heard that the politics playing out at Westminster is unprecedented.

It’s a well-used phrase but what else can you say about the chaotic scenes of the past week?

Nothing like it has ever been seen before nor likely will again.

What happened this week as parliament was prorogued by the crumbling Tory party under Boris Johnson’s leadership was fascinating and shocking at the same time.

MPs singing and protesting, the speaker resigning in his usual overly dramatic fashion and democracy shelved as Johnson contemplates how he can get his own way while staying out of prison for defying the Commons.

We’ve been told the man behind these developments, the prime minister’s adviser Dominic Cummings, has step-planned all of this out.

That’s truly hard to believe.

More locally and Sinn Féin are standing at the side-lines laughing and pointing at the spectacle unfolding before them.

The most common question asked of the party since the Brexit chaos began - ‘why not take your seats at Westminster?’ - is answering itself.

Now they don’t even need to use words to explain why they’re abstentionists, just show a series of short YouTube videos of MPs running around the floor of the house holding protest signs and shouting treason.

No republican party would want to try and prop up the Westminster circus in its current form.

Meanwhile the DUP must be getting nervous that their mate Boris is about to do what he’s done most of his life and put his own self-interest first.

During a brief visit to Dublin this week the British prime minister was sounding much more in the mood for compromise in the pursuit of a deal.

We’ve already heard that this could mean an all Ireland agri-food system to eradicate the need for border checks.

The DUP's insistence that we remain in line with the rest if the UK at all costs is no longer looking feasible as Conservative self-interest overtakes loyalty to the precious union.

Unionists placed all their eggs in Boris Johnson’s basket and that may yet backfire.

An unnamed senior Tory MP reported this week as saying they overheard the ‘Dark Lord’ Cummings say “I don’t care if Northern Ireland falls into the f**king sea”.

We’re told the majority of British people want Brexit and consideration of the border in Ireland and protecting our peace is the only thing stopping that happening.

We may yet be expendable – no surprise there.

Meanwhile locally we have Brexit preparations being left to civil servants in the absence of ministers to sign off on important decisions.

This includes concerns about medicine supply chains and availability in the event of a no deal.

Much needed reforms of the health service also requiring senior approval to allow the NHS to deliver in increasingly challenging circumstances are also delayed.

Circumstances I have often heard about but this week witnessed at first hand.

My elderly father was sent to the Royal Victoria Hospital by his doctor suffering chest pains and into a system that on a Tuesday night was struggling to cope.

We were moved from chair to slightly more comfortable chair for nine hours by apologetic staff.

The growing drug abuse crisis gripping our city is clearly putting extra strain on the system as lines of zombied out and often distressed young people filled the corridors around us.

They were intermingled with the walking wounded and dozens of elderly people needing treatment and comfort.

The staff offered sympathy and tea to my parents as we waited nine hours on the doctor, who was juggling a million and one balls in the air.

We are lucky to have an NHS and lucky to have such dedicated staff.

It is easy in the middle of the political theatre and bickering to lose sight of the fact that the essential services we rely on in times of personal crisis are functioning under severe strain.

For those staff who looked after my Da and all those other people who needed assistance this week, you are the real heroes - not the buffoons trying to save their own skins and salaries at Westminster.