Filling in for the ace @Alain_Tolhurst on this week’s Saturday read...
I interviewed DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson, who insisted he was not scared about the next Assembly election but warned it’d be “critical” for unionism. “It’s an election we must win.” politicshome.com/news/article/j…
Donaldson, who replaced Edwin Poots last month, told me the DUP would not consider supporting the UK government's move to implement Irish language legislation until/unless it delivered "meaningful" changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol
With the DUP languishing in recent polls, Donaldson said the party must be more "inclusive" and a "broad umbrella under which unionists can shelter," to get back on track
Donaldson wouldn't say whether he trusted Boris Johnson
But he warned the PM: "He does not want his legacy to be the break-up of the Union... I believe he will take the action necessary to restore Northern Ireland’s place within the UK internal market." politicshome.com/news/article/j…
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Peter Hain (Northern Ireland Secretary 05-07): “Compared with the attention Blair, Major and Brown gave to Northern Ireland, it has been treated with casual indifference, Frankly, I find it really upsetting”
"The government has allowed this to degenerate to the most serious crisis for a quarter of a century," Hain told PoliticsHome
He singled out “respected” Julian Smith, who Johnson sacked as Northern Ireland Secretary when he became PM, as an exception politicshome.com/news/article/n…
Several shellfish businesses have got in touch to explain why DEFRA's plan to build purification tanks in the UK won't revive live exports to the EU
Purification reduces shelf life and even if it didn't they'd need tanks as big as swimming pools, they say politicshome.com/news/article/s…
So yday Eustice told me that DEFRA would use some of the £100m fishing fund to let shellfish businesses build their own purification tanks in time for winter trading
This would allow them to depurate mussels, cockles etc before sending them to EU
As Devon-based mussel exporter John Holmyard explained, purification reduces shelf life and his exports would die before or soon after arriving in Europe
Or as James Green, an Oyster exporter in Kent put it: buyers "in France do not want purified oysters" politicshome.com/news/article/s…
Frost has asked officials to review the timetable for introducing checks on EU goods, as @tobyhelm & @Joe_Mayes have reported
There's "real nervousness" within HMG that delays could derail the reopening of hospitality and lead to empty supermarket shelves politicshome.com/news/article/b…
Frost is expected to put plans to potentially postpone checks on EU imports to Cabinet colleagues this week, potentially as soon as today