It has just struck me that the very weakness Johnson is now experiencing makes the DUP far less relevant, which in its turn opens up a border in the Irish Sea as a possible solution,. NI could stay permanently aligned to EU regulations, which solves the border issues, which solves Parliaments objections to the backstop. The EU is happy, NI voted remain anyway, so at least significant sections of it are happy, the Tory party might be happy - though much of the ERG as saying the backstop was not their only objection - and potentially the PM gets his deal by Oct 31.


Plenty of scope for failing in that, but it is a route we did not have before.