This was a stitch-up. Rishi Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen had already bonded. It was clear that both of them wanted to put Brexit behind them and to move forward into what could, conceivably be the sunlit uplands of a new relationship between Britain and the EU. But bringing King Charles into it and calling the deal the Windsor Framework was genius.
If the DUP, as the party of Ulster loyalism, says no to the Windsor Framework, it will be saying no to a deal to which the King has put his hand. It was Prince William, now the Prince of Wales and heir to his father’s throne, who gave Jeffrey Donaldson his knighthood at Buckingham Palace in 2016, making him a liegeman of the Monarch.
