Opinion

Allison Morris: The DUP have got their way but at what price to their precious Union?

Arlene Foster has urged the British government to push for a better Brexit deal 
Arlene Foster has urged the British government to push for a better Brexit deal  Arlene Foster has urged the British government to push for a better Brexit deal 

Even Theresa May’s most ardent critics could not have predicted the thrashing she took in Westminster on Tuesday, when 432 MPs, including 118 members of her own party, voted against the Withdrawal Agreement she’d spent weeks trying to sell.

Ordinarily, such a humiliating defeat would be followed by the prime minister's resignation. However, these are anything but ordinary times and Mrs May is holding on, seemingly determined to see this disaster movie through until the end credits roll.

The government now has until Monday to present MPs with an altered plan, but with no sign from Brussels that they are willing to ditch the backstop then that’s not looking likely.

Whilst all this is going on Brexiteers, are simply running down the clock to March 29, when Britain will by default crash out of the EU with no deal.

The only way to truly prevent Brexit is to revoke Article 50, or seek its extension as a staging post in that process.

For this to happen there would have to be legislation laid before Parliament to override the current default legal position, which decrees no deal in the absence of any agreement with the EU.

If you were all paying attention to the news coverage this week, you’d know that only a minister of the Crown can lay legislation before parliament, therefore only the government can bring forward the necessary legal text to stop Brexit, or seek an extension to prevent a no deal.

And again, there’s no indication of that happening.

So, while we keep hearing that the DUP don’t want a no deal, the actions of the party and the group of Tories they have aligned themselves with at Westminster says different.

Because as they know there does not have to be a majority for no deal, there just has to be no majority for any other deal.

The Brexiteers seem to think that a no deal and several months or even years of uncertainty will force the EU to renegotiate better terms.

They want to burn their own house down in the vague hope that the other member states will, at some undetermined stage in the future, help them build a new and better one.

Watching those who will suffer least play with the lives and the livelihoods of those who have most to lose in this scenario really is the ugly side of politics.

Remain have argued that this shambles strengthens their call for a second referendum, for a ‘People’s Vote’, if MPs can’t decide then put it to the people.

As we’ve seen Britain is a divided nation in the throes of the biggest crisis facing the government and its people since World War Two, a second vote will simply give momentum to those who are seeking to exploit this uncertainty.

What we do know now is that MPs in Westminster do not understand, nor seem to care, about the needs of Northern Ireland and the people who live here.

The DUP are at the centre of this, keeping a badly wounded prime minister in position but not power and using that weakness for their own end..

The party was never in favour of the Good Friday Agreement, they voted against it and opposed it from the start.

While they may not say it publicly there is always the suspicion that they are using Brexit as a chance to reverse elements of the agreement.

Nationalism has been forced in this situation to look increasingly towards Dublin to protect their rights and prevent Britain breaching its obligations under the peace treaty in order to pursue Brexit unhindered.

The Irish border was not considered when the Brexit referendum was called or voted for, and it is increasingly clear that those negotiating it see our rights and Britain’s obligations as a hindrance to their plan.

It’s been depressing but not surprising just how little those in power in Westminster care about the people of Northern Ireland, including the future of those who have shown them unquestioning loyalty for decades.

As we approach the centenary of the creation of Northern Ireland, who would have thought that the drawing of that border would have been at the very centre of European politics 100 years on, and not because of conflict.

The DUP seemed delighted with the events of Tuesday night, they got their wish and now have the majority of the house voting in their preferred way, albeit for a host of different reasons.

I’ll never understand their reasoning, they’ve done more in the last two years to advance the case for a border poll than decades of violence ever could.

British politics is in flux, Northern Ireland is in state of uncertainty without a devolved government and with a hard Brexit looming, the future has never looked so precarious.

The DUP may well get their hard Brexit but what price in the long run to the future of their precious Union? The answer to that question might come sooner than they think.