YESSSS, a Tory kicking!

[Suff]

Well if it brings Sinn Fein into the government and makes them actually stand up in Westminster and discuss who they are and what their aspirations are, I'd be happy with that. Too long have they taken seats out of Westminster. I want to hear what they have to say there. Plus they could have a real impact now which, I'm sure, their voters would like.

[Osc]

Well if it brings Sinn Fein into the government and makes them actually stand up in Westminster and discuss who they are and what their aspirations are, I'd be happy with that

I can tell you now that that won't happen. Gerry Adams has already said they won't be taking their seats (although they are of course happy to take the money )

[Workingman]

There was an interview last night with Sinn Fein's Alex Maskey.

It took a while but he eventually confirmed that SF MPs would not be taking their seats in Westminster. However, he was not as strident or outraged at the Tory/DUP tie up as one would have imagined - it was more "We will wait and see". All he would say was for the voters in the UK to do some of their "own" research into the DUP and then decide if it is a good idea or not.

[Osc]

All he would say was for the voters in the UK to do some of their "own" research into the DUP and then decide if it is a good idea or not.

That was rather clever of him.

[TheOstrich]

It probably won't be a formal coalition with the DUP, just a confidence and supply arrangement; the DUP will only prop up the Tories in no-confidence votes and financial votes.

The DUP have an agenda already worked out for such a situation - they prepared one in case the 2015 parliamentary election was hung. Apparently it involves oodles of money to be granted for Northern Ireland and cross-border projects, and little was said regarding community "agendas". The DUP also favour an open border and a soft Brexit as far as I'm aware, and the more I think about it, the more an overall soft Brexit seems likely now. It's not what I'd hoped for, but one has to be pragmatic. I hope Sinn Fein can be equally pragmatic.

This might, in the long term, be a good thing. But if the EU is too greedy, all bets should be off.

In other news, Timothy and Hill have now been allowed to resign. Poor move, they should have been sacked. May was threatened by a senior source with a leadership challenge if they weren't dispensed with; I'd put my money on Hammond as the architect there .....

[Suff]

Brexit

The DUP is staunchly pro-Leave, being the only mainstream party in Northern Ireland to have backed Brexit, despite the region voting to remain.

The DUP's manifesto states that the party will work "to get the best deal for Northern Ireland", stating: "In the new Parliament, Northern Ireland needs to have a strong, united DUP team arguing the case for our people."

Brexit is also seen as favourable to the DUP due to its commitment to Unionism, although leader Arlene Foster having spoken against it and expressed her hopes of avoiding a hard border with Ireland, in order to "respect the specific circumstances of Northern Ireland, and, of course, our shared history and geography with the Republic of Ireland."

Like many Brexiteers, the party wants to end the supremacy of the EU’s highest court and argues that Britain should regain the freedom to make global trade deals, which would require leaving the EU’s single market — something Ms May also hopes to do.

Hard Brexit with a soft border is what that means.

In short stuff the EU but if people want to come over the Irish border then they'll either have to conform with UK laws or be illegal. Significantly different from Soft Brexit.