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Brendan Hughes

Brendan Hughes: Arlene Foster role in DUP panel reveals Windsor Framework strategy

A former DUP leader interviewing the current DUP leader about the DUP.

Unionism's equivalent of the 'Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man' meme has become all too common now that Arlene Foster is a regular presenter on GB News.

No-one expects Frost versus Nixon when the former DUP leader hosts a cosy chat with her successor Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, who regularly chooses the TV channel over sit-down interviews with local newspapers.

Read more: Brendan Hughes: NI secretary offers DUP new escape route on Windsor Framework

But the levels of farce reached new heights this week when Dame Arlene was named as a member of Sir Jeffrey's new advisory panel on the Windsor Framework.

The announcement came only a day after Baroness Foster interviewed the DUP leader, but neither thought to mention it during their stroll through party talking points.

Perhaps they did not know at that stage. If so, that would raise further questions about the DUP's preparedness for gaming out the new deal on Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol.

With their continuing close working relationship, Dame Arlene's inclusion in the DUP's eight-member panel set up to gauge unionist opinion speaks volumes.

Sir Jeffrey maintained the group will work "independently", but this is clearly not an exercise designed to blindside the DUP leader with unexpected outcomes.

Instead, this is a panel stacked with former and current DUP representatives regarded as relative moderates and pragmatists.

It adds to the perception that the DUP wants to chart a route back to Stormont power-sharing, but is seeking to avoid triggering a split both within the party and among unionist voters at the polls.

It wasn't too long ago Dame Arlene was ousted as DUP leader in a party revolt for reasons including how she was seen as too soft in opposing the protocol.

Conspicuously absent from the line-up are Ian Paisley, Nigel Dodds and Sammy Wilson, three DUP stalwarts who have been most vocally critical of the Windsor Framework.

Nor does the panel include former Northern Ireland Attorney General John Larkin KC, who was entrusted with representing unionists in an unsuccessful Supreme Court challenge to the protocol.

In a paper co-authored by loyalist activist Jamie Bryson, Mr Larkin recently concluded the Windsor Framework deal does not strengthen the constitutional status of Northern Ireland as part of the UK.

Solicitor John McBurney, who serves on the Independent Reporting Commission to monitor paramilitary activity, provides a legal perspective on the panel. Last year he told MPs a deal on the protocol was needed to counter "momentum" for paramilitaries.

The world of business is represented by Ross Reed, a director of a firm specializing in the cold storage of food shipments.

A "firm Remainer", he expressed support in 2019 for Theresa May's "backstop" solution to post-Brexit trade arrangements.

In its 2022 accounts his firm Interfrigo cited EU financial support for helping in a recent £6.2million expansion, and listed Brexit among its "principal risks and uncertainties".

Perhaps most significantly of all in the advisory panel line-up is the inclusion of former DUP leader Peter Robinson.

His comments in a recent Facebook post are lengthy and layered but again point to realism over the Windsor Framework.

The former First Minister advised the DUP to "consult widely but decide internally" and take its time in reaching a "wise, prudent, and defendable outcome".

He said it was "important to also consider whether in rejecting the framework.. we place unionism and Northern Ireland on more perilous ground".

Back in the fold since Sir Jeffrey became party leader, many have speculated Mr Robinson's hand in DUP manoeuvres over the protocol which have seen the party boycotting Stormont.

The new panel could easily sit among other classic DUP tactics to see the party through a rough patch, from the Unionist Forum following the 2012 Union flag protests to 'in-out' ministers in 2015.

With its report not due until the end of March, at the very least it buys Sir Jeffrey some time.

And if the DUP leader ever decides to reveal its contents, expect Dame Arlene to have the "scoop".

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