The Irish protocol.

I honestly dont think anyone in downing st or the tory party has noticed or even cares that stormont has collapsed.

Stormont collapse failed to make the front page of any national UK papers......

The DUP and TUV joining forces to fight the election by all accounts, can Beattie keep the UUP out of it?

They are plainly saying that you can have equality only on our terms by their actions and destroying any comfort there was with staying in the Union just when they should have been making the Union attractive.

Bizarre strategy really, for the life of me I cannot see any sense in it.

Latest polling shows 1 in 10 Unionists think the Protocol is important to them at the minute which would back up the amount of interest in responding to calls in actually protesting.

Political Unionism is at sea and drowning at the moment.

Well I think it's clear that the DUP and hard-line unionists were backing brexit mainly to move NI further away from the republic. In that sense their goal was always the introduction of as much of a border as possible on the island of Ireland. They felt this was the inevitable outcome of brexit and did not count on all other parties not accepting such. At every point they have opposed any solution that doesn't involve a border in Ireland. All of their actions are very understandable if you think that the border in Ireland was their goal.

From that point of view they are really damned, because it's politically unacceptable for them to campaign on what their true goals are, but won't gain votes until they can give a clear picture of their intentions. Their only option right now is to be vaguely obstructionist, which becomes less and less valid as the benefits of the protocol manifest. Tremendously poor politicking from them, really shows their lack of ability at high level strategy.

'Bryson not Happy'

The ultimate litmus test that the way forward is correct

The overwhelming feeling I get is that Jeffery's heart is just not in objecting to the protocol. He's got himself in some pickle.

A funny video is doing the rounds on Twitter about Sammy Wilson getting booed by the crowd and Allister having to step in to tell them to let him talk.

What a time to be alive seeing Unionism crash and burn, they are like a pack of wolves turning on each other.

It really needs to be discussed the source of the DUPs funding of advertising of a Pro Brexit mandate in English newspapers where no DUP members were standing. Especially when you realise the apparent link with Russia funding and the current situation in the Ukraine. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-44624299

What is equally worrisome is the reports regarding the Russian influence in the whole Brexit vote and the suppression of the security report https://youtu.be/jZYR7n2gpOU

I think now would be a good time for Dublin/Brussels to force GB's hand on honouring its commitments to the Tory/DUP Protocol. There should be hard time-limits put on GB's cooperation with information sharing and inspections of British goods coming into the north. If GB fails to live up to its commitments then let the EU use its economic weight to focus minds in little England. The British Government will not be long in bringing Unionism to heel if faced with the slightest threat to their electoral fortunes due to EU pressure.

The EU getting stronger together must be distressing for those seeking to divide it.

Let me fix that:

"A former Brexit Party MEP has claimed that the EU's treatment of Northern Ireland, which the UK government sought and which he himself voted to support, is on a par with Vladimir Putin's bloody invasion of Ukraine, sparking criticism."

3 losses now but they say (Hoey, Allister and Bryson) that the next step is the Supreme Court.