By Jon Tonge It's hardly surprising that DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds has indicated that a dual UK-EU customs plan cannot work. The DUP has always opposed joint authority in any context.
By Jon Tonge The positive tone from Thursday's meeting between Boris Johnson and Leo Varadkar was a welcome antidote to the weeks of megaphone diplomacy which preceded the Wirral mini-summit.
By Jon Tonge So the European Union rejects the idea of a non-existent Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly determining the contours of the EU single market, covering 500 million people? Just fancy that.
By Jon Tonge So the DUP supports an all-Ireland economy within the EU single market and backs checks on goods travelling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland? Who would have thought it?
By Jon Tonge The imminent departure of Robin Swann as leader represents another blow to the long-ailing Ulster Unionist Party.
By Jon Tonge Another unedifying week in politics. Such was the poisonous rancour of Wednesday evening's Westminster 'debate' after Parliament reconvened that another prorogation might actually have been...
By Jon Tonge Where does the Government go from here? It ought to be hard for the Prime Minister, effectively labelled an 'Enemy of the Parliament' by a Supreme Court as incredulous as it was unanimous, to...
By Jon Tonge What are the odds on a 6-5 split verdict from the Supreme Court judges next week?
By Jon Tonge It has been the least edifying week in politics since, well, the previous one. As a parliament prorogued was adjudicated by the Scottish Courts to be the action of rogues not pros, the battle...
By Jon Tonge "DUP opens door to new Brexit deal for Johnson" trumpeted yesterday's Times newspaper.
By Jon Tonge Are the DUP's best days gone? It's a question many will pose amid the loss of the party's kingmaker role at Westminster.
By Jon Tonge So apart from no Brexit, no majority and no election, not a bad week for Boris Johnson then.
By Jon Tonge So having demanded a general election for two years, it appears that Jeremy Corbyn's party may have got cold feet on the idea.
By Jon Tonge It might have been easier to have taken the Crown off the lectern and leave it outside 10 Downing Street, ready for Boris Johnson's election declaration tomorrow night. For all the Prime Minister's...
By Jon Tonge So it's not just Northern Ireland with expertise in the prolonged proroguing of parliament. Boris Johnson's five-week suspension of the Commons is possibly the most thinly-veiled Westminster plot in...
By Jon Tonge As plans go, Boris Johnson's idea of an October 17 general election has far more credibility than the one to suspend Parliament to get Brexit over the line.
By Jon Tonge Amid the furore over Boris Johnson's Cabinet appointments, Julian Smith's posting as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland appears one of the new Prime Minister's shrewder moves. Smith has spent the...
By Jon Tonge Arlene Foster chose a good day to be sat in the royal box at Wimbledon. Watching Serena Williams (twice) and Andy Murray must have been infinitely preferable to witnessing the demolition of...
By Jon Tonge Prime Minister-elect Boris Johnson - that's assuming the Conservative members don't take a dim view of late-night domestics - was unusually reticent during the rounds of voting among...
By Jon Tonge This newspaper doesn't always make it easy for columnists. "A thousand words on Theresa May's achievements as Prime Minister please". I've not struggled with the upper word limit.
By Jon Tonge Two breakthroughs in one month. These are heady days for Naomi Long's Alliance Party.
Jon Tonge Eight Conservative Party leadership candidates declared and lots more to come. But, if a Conservative Secretary of State struggled to understand the differences between unionists and nationalists,...
By Jon Tonge As election candidates, pundits and counters catch up on sleep this Bank Holiday Monday, how is the 2019 local election best analysed in terms of all the main parties?
By Jon Tonge So the centre ground really does exist. Just when we were thinking that the non-unionist, non-nationalist elector was a creature found only in our university studies of public opinion, out come Alliance...
By Jon Tonge The opening day of May seems early to decide the political moment of the year. Yet the sight of sheepish politicians rising uncertainly to their feet amid heartfelt admonishment from Father Martin Magill...
By Jon Tonge Parliament's predictable eight-fold rejection of every Brexit option highlights how all exits from our political crisis are currently blocked.
By Jon Tonge Another day, another humiliation for the Prime Minister. There's little fun in interminable ritual. When even your Attorney General says, in boomingly polite but forlorn language, that you haven't...
By Jon Tonge Will the real DUP Brexit policy please stand up? You can have whatever DUP Brexit you like at present.
By Jon Tonge Another day. Another 7pm News Special. Another near-farce. Two long hours of divisions to produce the parliamentary equivalent of a scoreless penalty shoot-out. Still, at least the Commons will be...
By Jon Tonge Not bad night's work for the DUP then, in an odd sort of way. An unwanted deal defeated, a Prime Minister humiliated and a Conservative Party clinging to office today on its 10 votes.
By Jon Tonge So on we go, with a Prime Minister with the backing of 63% of her party. Weaker than John Major, the last Conservative PM to undergo a vote of confidence. He carried on and took his party out of...
By Jon Tonge Amid their apoplexy over the EU withdrawal agreement, the DUP's MPs might have enjoyed Theresa May's abject discomfort in the Commons yesterday.
By Jon Tonge Who is advising Theresa May? At a time when the Prime Minister needs the support of parliamentarians like never previously in British political history, she descends upon a place where 17 of the 18...
Jon Tonge A delayed flight back from Belfast on Saturday night allowed plenty of time for reflection on the DUP conference. Things will be easier when Boris's bridge - an easy build, he reckoned - is constructed.
By Jon Tonge Bin the backstop will be the uncompromising message from DUP leaders Arlene Foster and Nigel Dodds at potentially the liveliest conference in the party's history today.
By Jon Tonge The DUP gathers for its annual conference this weekend after one of the most turbulent years in the party's recent history. Thank goodness Boris Johnson will be speaking, just to calm everyone...
By Jon Tonge Theresa May's 905-word eulogy to 'her' deal might contain lots of cogent points but will do nothing to appease her erstwhile Westminster allies in the DUP.
By Jon Tonge One hundred references to Northern Ireland in the Draft EU withdrawal agreement, but virtually none to please the DUP. Northern Ireland businesses trading across the border may take a...
By Jon Tonge Normally the DUP at least waits until seeing the text before rejecting the deal. This time Sammy Wilson and Nigel Dodds were already solemnly shaking heads before some outlets had broken...
By Jon Tonge So, the endgame then. For the last year the DUP have been supplying the Government with anything but confidence. The June 2016 sweetheart deal was horribly misnamed.
By Jon Tonge UUP leader Robin Swann faced a trio of difficult tasks at his party conference on Saturday: attacking the DUP in a way that resonated with ordinary unionists; articulating the means of revival for his...
By Jon Tonge The pledge by the DUP's Westminster leader Nigel Dodds to paralyse the Conservative Government's legislative agenda if a border in the Irish Sea emerges seems bold.
By Jon Tonge A scrum of reporters, Press releases, meetings, statements, Press conferences and off-the-record briefings.
By Jon Tonge The only surprise about Arlene Foster saying the Good Friday Agreement is 'not sacrosanct' is that people were surprised.
By Jon Tonge Short of tweeting pictures from a Sri Lankan beach, Ian Paisley Jnr could hardly have been more bullish yesterday.
By Jon Tonge Tough times for MLAs. They'll soon be receiving a mere 25% more than the average UK salary for not turning up for work.
By Jon Tonge Not mellowed, has he? Peter Robinson's scathing denunciation of fellow unionists - within and beyond the DUP - in yesterday's Belfast Telegraph offered a stark reminder of the brutal, and often...
By Jon Tonge The Arlene Foster Summer of Outreach tour played its toughest leg last night. Appearing before the LGBT community at Stormont, the former first minister could, at best, hope for a respectful, not...
By Jon Tonge 'Come on Arlene' sang the crowd at St Tiernach's Park. I swear well she means…
By Jon Tonge Arlene Foster's recent attempts at outreach have received a broadly positive welcome.
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