This Blog has been sceptical that the DUP would sign a deal with May. But they have been helped on their way by a one billion pound cash handout. To buy power with the most bigoted and provocative political party in the UK, is just about the sorriest outcome of an election in the history of the Tory party. At least there can be honour in outright defeat, but there is none here. The DUP brand of free church unionism is toxic to many in Northern Ireland and many more in the United Kingdom as a whole. There is also quite a bit to say about the ratio of seats to votes, but that can wait till another day.
What is really interesting is that this seals May’s doom. Because so long as she led a minority government any attempt to unseat her as prime minister would have, by most constitutional interpretations outside Tory HQ, demanded that the Queen send for Corbyn. But once the Queen’s Speech is passed, it is possible for May to be deposed and for the party she has led to relative disaster, to have an opportunity to elect a replacement. Hence the chatter of the weekend that Spreadsheet Phil could very well move next door.
At the end of the day it will stick, like dog mess to a shoe, that the Tory party, to cling to power it had lost, bought the votes of these bigots who oppose gay marriage and LGBT rights, outlaw abortion and consider women who chose it should be imprisoned for life. When election day finally rolls into view, like an avalanche down the mountain, the Tory party will be buried by the electorate for this grubby little deal. And there will be nobody willing to dig them out.