As the latest episode of the Brexit drama moved back to London yesterday, the Government adopted a firm stance on the deal it insists it secured earlier this week.
As far as Dublin is concerned, it reached an agreement with the UK that Theresa May could not get over the line - and that deal must stick. The Government is willing to make some changes to the language of the deal, but its substance must not change.It is now over to May and her confidence-and-supply partners in the DUP to decide what they need to accept the deal. In effect, May must do what she failed to do earlier in the week and find a way of politically managing her own government to accept what she has agreed.
Pat Leahy sums up the view from Dublin here, while Denis Staunton's take from London is here.
On the DUP front, Sam McBride of the Belfast News Letter has a piece this morning in which he suggests that the seeds of the DUP's objections lead to a solution.
Aside from Arlene Foster’s typically blunt charge that the Irish Government had told the British not to show the DUP the final agreed text on the Border - a suggestion immediately dismissed out of hand by Dublin - Nigel Dodds in Westminster said the party accepted the need for some regulatory alignment between North and South.
Changes to the deal that would be palatable to Dublin include some language on the strength of the United Kingdom to appease the DUP, but it seems unlikely the Government would be willing to go down the road of spelling out exactly where it sees regulatory alignment applying.
The Government’s decision to stand back and await developments in London bore some fruit in the House of Commons yesterday, with Brexit secretary David Davis indicating a softer approach to a final EU deal and Britain’s Labour indicating a change in policy toward remaining in both the customs union and single market.
Davis's indication makes our lead today.
Does it mean the Tory party will finally have the row about what type of Brexit it wants? The Financial Times reports that even Eurosceptic MPs now accept UK-wide regulatory alignment is likely, and Kwasi Kwarteng, a Brexit-supporting MP, also gave voice to Davis's position during a Newsnight appearance last night.
Boris Johnson, however, is not happy.
All eyes will be on Theresa May at Prime Minister’s Questions in Westminster at noon today.
