Letter: What offer from critics guaranteeing the removal of the Windsor Framework is on the table ?

When explained, no one confronted me - all accepted that I remain critical of the framework imposition.

Also, despite the bravado of those promising the removal of the framework, there is an absence of options capable of shifting the government.

Stormont can work when it proves it is not a house of cards built on EU directives.

But with or without Stormont, Parliaments decree that technically a border in the Irish Sea operates, that the EU has access into NI affairs (if the assembly consents) and accordingly how NI will be governed.

Do I like it, can it be ignored? Do I believe that Parliament, the bastion of British democracy, was right? No. Do I accept Parliament’s sovereign authority? Yes.

I am a committed devolutionist and original supporter of the Belfast Agreement. I am also a Brexiteer. Let’s be clear - the Brexit vote I helped deliver as leader of UKIP-NI has nothing whatsoever in common with the pernicious protocol trash deal Boris Johnson concluded with the EU. Don't blame unionists, blame treacherous Tories.

Fast forward to now - hard, critical decisions have to be taken in NI's best interests. There is no wriggle room for grandstanding and dividing unionism.

What offer from critics is on the table guaranteeing the removal of the framework? Where is the viable attainable alternative plan to alter Parliament’s decree?

I will argue that the price for conformity to incoming EU directives has yet to be determined. It will not be long before incoming directives will be challenged with the outcome ultimately deciding on unionists’ future participation in government.

Then it calls for honest, confident and respected leadership; leadership driving strategies and policies that merit support and show good reason to be in Stormont.

Finally, unionists are not fools. The legal, technical and academic cases for and against the framework have been thought through, weighed up and concluded on. What counts is the gut instincts of most unionists who have settled on navigating choppy waters by approving of making devolution work.

David McNarry, former UKIP NI leader