By Jamie Bryson
The Donaldson Deal ‘Surrendering the Union’- the DUP’s central policy- was always based upon a foundation of deception and falsehoods. The claims which were made by the DUP leadership, particularly Jeffrey Donaldson and Gavin Robinson, were always demonstrably false.
However such was the desperation and spin in getting Stormont back, it was those telling the truth about the Donaldson Deal at that time who attracted most fire, particularly from the NIO and those in the DUP who had- with their eyes wide open- chosen to participate in what was, to quote their own party Chairman Lord Morrow, the attempted “sleight of hand of the century”.
On the day me and Jim Allister gave a press conference at Stormont publishing a legal opinion we along with Reform UK Deputy Leader Ben Habib and Baroness Kate Hoey, had procured from NI’s foremost constitutional law expert, former Attorney General John Larkin KC, Jeffrey Donaldson- with Gavin Robinson standing shoulder to should with him- dismissively waved away that legal opinion.
It is telling the DUP could never once produce a single legal opinion to counter that set out by Mr Larkin, nor could they reduce to writing their arguments, unlike those of us opposed to the Donaldson Deal who had set out in great detail why the DUP leadership were blatantly and shamelessly telling lies.
Who could also forget Julian Smith and Chris Heaton-Harris standing in Parliament mocking those opposing the Donaldson Deal. Indeed, Smith reveled in the moment, arrogance dripping from him as he mocked and sneered. As the Donaldson Deal collapses under its lies, and the events around its chief proponent, I often think of Julian Smith and Chris Heaton-Harris sneering.
I think too of Paul Givan and his rant against Jim Allister, and his labelling anyone daring to tell the truth as “dead end unionists”. All of these people who willingly, knowingly, closed their eyes to the truth and went along with the lies about what the Donaldson Deal achieved; they are all complicit in a coordinated effort to mislead and deceive the unionist community.
Those of us who steadfastly, despite the siege, stood firm on the ground which we always stood can now say: we told you so!
Indeed, even the media are no longer able to even play along. There isn’t even the pretence the Irish Sea border has gone; it is now widely accepted the Donaldson Deal was, and is, a tissue of lies and deceit.
There remain significant questions about the context within which those negotiations leading to the Donaldson Deal were conducted. The timeline is of crucial importance, and whilst it is very transparent the PSNI are trying to play their role in maintaining the stability of the institutions which rest upon the Donaldson Deal, carefully worded statements issued for that purpose is the PSNI engaging in politics. If those carefully crafted statements turn out to have been deliberately misleading, then that will only fuel concerns as to what has transpired in recent months politically.
The new leadership of the DUP now faces a choice. It can be set out simply: do they tell the truth, or continue the lies?
They could accept the Donaldson Deal is not what their former leader claimed and set out how they will now continue to fight against the Irish Sea border. Of course, for those who endorsed the Donaldson Deal, they will also have to contrive a way of explaining why they did so- claiming they did not know what they were doing or that they were misled wont wash; there is no one who can claim they did not know.
Or, they can continue promoting the Donaldson Deal, and the falsehoods which underpinned it.
If they chose the former approach, then with an election approaching they can justifiably then try to rebuild their own support and unity of purpose across unionism, but if they remain wedded to the Donaldson Deal then how could they expect there to be a unity of purpose across unionism when their position is based on demonstrable lies?
The Irish Sea border remains; the Protocol remains; the green lane remains; EU law remains and all that has truly changed is that the DUP are now implementers of those Union-subjugating arrangements.
Once that is accepted as the obvious truth, then unionism can find a unity of purpose in seeking to find a way out of the mess the Donaldson Deal Surrendering the Union has landed unionism and the Union in.
However, as it presently stands, the DUP have not disavowed the Donaldson Deal. There can be no point of honest disagreement, let alone unity, between the truth and a lie.