NORTHERN Ireland has been given a sea border arrangement better than almost anyone could have hoped.
The 'best of both worlds' description by deputy prime minister Michael Gove might be pushing it but 'potentially least worst' is fair enough.
Eastbound trade will be genuinely unfettered and nearly all inbound goods can be waved through without checks or charges.
Meat products face new barriers within three to six months but even that could change with a UK-EU trade deal, which is certain eventually, if not imminently.
The DUP should be seizing this chance to save its bacon. It could not have escaped more lightly from its monumental error in backing Brexit or its subsequent hubris and humiliation at Westminster.
Nationalism's argument has been 'backstop or border poll'. Unionists should be citing the sea border 'frontstop' to counter that demand.
Perhaps the DUP is entering its own adjustment period on the issue. But the fulminations from senior party figures suggest this will take not months but years, destroying any chance of reclaiming the agenda.
What matters more to the DUP - the union or its pride?
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The government fudged the row over EU inspectors having a permanent base in Northern Ireland by saying they will merely hot desk with UK officials at the new customs posts.
Apparently the government has not read its own Covid guidance, last updated on November 26, which requires "avoiding use of hot desks".
The Health and Safety Executive guidance for Northern Ireland also says "avoid any sharing of workstations, including hot desking".
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BBC Northern Ireland needs a St Andrews agreement. The solo-runs and silos between its news departments make Stormont look seamless.
Matters reached an absurd extent last weekend after the Stephen Nolan show reported legacy talks hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury involving loyalists, republicans, British and Irish government officials, the PSNI and the Ministry of Defence.
The story was followed up by Radio Ulster news programmes but the BBC news website ignored it for two full days before publishing a piece that downplayed it.
There can have been no editorial concerns: participants had confirmed the talks took place.
So why blank your own corporation's scoop? These frequent, obvious snubs risk discrediting the BBC's journalism and generating conspiracy theories among members of the public who do not realise the problem is just daft office politics.
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Most complaints about the Archbishop's meeting were about the absence of victims groups.
Far more extraordinary was the presence of Jon Boutcher. The former chief constable of Bedfordshire is chairing several Troubles legacy investigations, most notably into Stakeknife, the army agent inside the IRA.
Attending hush-hush legacy talks with Sinn Féin and the Ministry of Defence looks unwise, to put it mildly.
The tragedy is that Boutcher has built up a reputation for fearless independence through the Stakenife inquiry, known as Operation Kenova.
Aspersions against its findings are now bound to be cast from both directions, which of course will suit Sinn Féin and the army down to the ground.
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PSNI chief constable Simon Byrne has defended police handling of June's IRA funeral, saying his officers could not have dispersed the preceding republican rally without "widespread violence and disorder".
"We are in nobody's pocket, we do not collude with anybody, we just have to use discretion which is at the heart of our policing style," he told the Policing Board.
In 2017, the PSNI lost a Supreme Court case into similar facilitation of the flag protests, with judges reminding it its first duty is to prevent offences, no matter how much that might upset a mob.
Ironically, flag protestor Jamie Bryson has been leading complaints online that police in June did not get stuck in.
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A fascinating argument has broken out over Sinn Féin minister Carál Ní Chuilín's plan to reclassify part of the Housing Executive as a mutual society, enabling it to borrow money for housebuilding.
People Before Profit claims this is "privatisation in fancy wrapper". A motion it raised against this at Belfast City Council was supported by the SDLP, Alliance, Greens and the PUP. Sinn Féin and the DUP voted against.
Both sides have valid points: mutualisation can open the door to privatisation but that is not Ní Chuilín's intention.
What is fascinating is that Sinn Féin stood its ground in an argument it would run a mile from in the Republic, where its councillors block public housing rather than budge an inch on left-wing principles.
Yet housing is the top priority of Sinn Féin's southern voters.
The determination to deliver on this issue at Stormont clearly has an eye on the Dáil.
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There was a punchline to the Housing Executive debate on Twitter, where Sinn Féin councillor Ryan Murphy called supporters of the motion "Trots".
People Before Profit councillor Fiona Ferguson pointed out supporters included public service union Nipsa.
"Does Councillor Murphy think they're all a bunch of 'Trots'?" she asked.
Not all of them, perhaps. A legendary 2016 employment tribunal found Nipsa comprises two head office factions, Trotskyists and Marxist-Leninists, engaged in endless infighting despite having "no clear difference of political opinion".
