Northern Ireland Protocol: The Times newspaper says Jeffrey Donaldson must spurn 'constitutional purism' and 'Paisleyite hardliners' to seal a deal

Headed ‘The Times view on agreeing a Brexit deal for Northern Ireland: Wise Up’, the piece urges Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to reject what it sees as the twin follies of “hardline Paisleyism” and Boris Johnson’s own maneuverings.

The subdeck to the piece reads: “Constitutional purism cannot be allowed to fail Northern Ireland again. The DUP should ignore Boris Johnson, put the Union first, and agree to a deal on the protocol.”

It recalls the compromises needed to get the Belfast / Good Friday Agreement over the line – noting that the 1998 deal involved accepting the premature release of fanatical killers.

By contrast, it states that today the leader of Ulster unionism has drawn a red line at “the remote prospect of judges in Strasbourg adjudicating on the contents of a lorry bound from Belfast to Cork".

It asks: “Does Sir Jeffrey really think that reason enough to deny Northern Ireland a government?”

The piece begins by denouncing the EU for showing “intransigence on doctrine even Ian Paisley might have admired”, adding “that the transportation of sandwiches and prescription medicines from Liverpool to Larne was ever considered an existential threat to the sanctity of the European single market is absurd”.

But it points to “recent significant EU re-concessions”, particularly the idea of red and green lanes at ports, and the acceptance that “the European Court of Justice may rule on the operation of the protocol only in rare cases referred by Belfast judges”.

"Sir Jeffrey may find this difficult” to accept, according to the editorial’s author(s), because “he is assailed by Paisleyite hardliners with whom he has little in common and Conservative opportunists who ought to know better”.

As for Boris Johnson’s recent intervention, the editorial notes that “having agreed the 2019 deal that cut Northern Ireland adrift, Mr Johnson alone bears responsibility for the constitutional crisis Mr Sunak may soon resolve”.

As such “he is the last person to whom anyone, especially Sir Jeffrey, should be listening”.

It ends with an appeal to Sir Jeffrey to simply “wise up”.

Lee Reynolds, the former leader of the DUP on Belfast council and its ex-director of policy, responded: “Being part of the UK on the same terms as the other parts of the UK and as it was intended to be isn’t purism – it’s the basics.

"If the deal doesn’t deliver on the basics then it’s others who need to wise up regardless of whoever says whatever.

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