It looks as if the divided DUP – and their fiercest critics, the TUV – are going to work themselves up into a froth again about the Irish Sea border that they, and their treacherous former friend Johnson, created in October 2019.

In December, probably December 17, MLAs have to vote on keeping the north in the EU’s single market. They will.

The vote will be carried easily, the combined unionist parties going down something like 53-36 to the combined Sinn Féin, Alliance, SDLP and the single PBP vote.

What unionists don’t understand is of how little consequence the whole pantomime is. It doesn’t amount to a row of Italian beans coming in through the border post at Larne.

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As usual, everyone but the DUP has moved on. Furthermore, and this is a change the DUP haven’t come to terms with yet, the privileged position they enjoyed with the wholly partisan Conservative government over the past 14 years has gone.

The DUP have no leverage in Westminster. In a vast sea of Labour MPs – 411 – the surviving five DUP MPs don’t count. They’re easily forgotten.

© The Irish News