Newton Emerson: EU-UK deal is a gift to unionists. Shame so many want to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

53% : The UK will be moving ever closer to the EU, certainly for as long as the Labour Party is in government.
52% : For the first time in years it can point to a political trend in its favour, even if this only promises to undo part of the damage it has suffered since Brexit - damage it is widely seen to have brought upon itself.
51% : In March, the EU proposed adding its new artificial intelligence regulations to the Windsor Framework, to the bemusement of trade experts.
50% : Much of northern nationalism in particular has convinced itself that Brexit and the sea border will drive a terminal wedge into the union.
48% : Although moderate unionists support the British government's policy of a closer relationship with the EU, three-quarters of what the research termed "strong unionists" oppose it.
39% : While the Irish Government has risen above this with its Shared Island initiative, others in nationalism have bet the farm on a Brexit process that has now gone into reverse.
36% : In the zero-sum game of Northern Ireland politics, that should mean a setback for nationalism.
35% : The TUV and prominent figures in the DUP have complained not only about the shortcomings of Monday's deal but about the direction of travel, decrying it as a betrayal of Brexit.
34% : It is a short step from there to portraying Britain as a victim of Northern Ireland The UK's "reset" agreement with the EU, unveiled on Monday, lowers the Irish Sea border much further than many observers had expected.

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