It's easy at times like this to be downbeat about NI.

I'm pretty upbeat.

I know being upbeat is illegal on Twitter, but let's try it anyway.

1/9 The DUP consistently confuses golf with tennis.

In golf, you play the ball and it's your responsibility to deal with where it ends up, but you are in control (at least, to the extent that your ability allows).

The DUP likes that kind of control.

But politics isn't golf...

2/9

The DUP is literally entirely at fault for the Irish Sea Border.

Its MPs held the balance of power when the crucial decisions were made, and cast the defining votes which made sure there would be one.

Let us just remember...

1/6 Shortly after the Referendum a DUP MP went on the radio to say there were no checks and the Norway-Sweden border.

He refused to apologise and accept this error even when he was shown pictures of the checks...

2/6

In 1963, the assassination of President Kennedy was followed by a raft of conspiracy theories.

These arose fundamentally because the human mind can’t compute that someone as marginal and irrelevant as Oswald could have such a major say on global politics.

1/ The idea the President of the United States can simply be shot by a loner is something we do not wish to comprehend.

We feel much more secure with the pretence that there is some great power controlling things. Kennedy’s assassination was an unwelcome reminder this isn’t so.

2/

This evening in Germany, David Davis has demonstrated a frankly humiliating misunderstanding of even the basics of the EU.

A quick thread.

1/ Firstly, even if somehow Angela Merkel were scared that the German economy could be crippled by, er, not being able to export freely to a smaller country like the UK, she cannot intervene to offer the UK a special deal. No one can.

2/