Brussels bluff called by dead cat?

This was big news briefly last night but it seems to have subsided today:

Northern Ireland minister orders halt to Brexit agri-food checks

Northern Ireland’s agriculture minister has ordered all Brexit checks on food and farm products to be stopped from midnight in a unilateral move that will set him on a collision course with Brussels....

“I have taken legal advice in relation to my position from senior counsel. Earlier today, I received that legal advice,” he told the Stormont assembly....“The advice concluded that I can direct the checks to cease in the absence of executive approval....“I have now issued a formal instruction to my permanent secretary to halt all checks that were not in place on 31 December 2020 from midnight tonight.”

There were reports last week after the visit of the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, to Northern Ireland that Westminster would not oppose Poots’ mooted move.

The Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, indicated on Wednesday evening that the UK government would not intervene over the DUP’s decision....“Obviously this is a matter for the Northern Ireland executive; it is something that is within their legal remit,”

There is the reek of dead cat all over this as Boris seeks distractions from the obsession with illegal/inappropriate parties in Downing Street during the Covid crisis, but it is a rather neat way to rebuild the Brexit alliance that got him elected with a landslide. Snubbing the EU would be very popular./ Getting the DUP to do it, and claiming he can do nothing is clever if only as sabre rattling.

Sabres are certainly being drawn if not rattled yet as a local crisis in NI develops:

Northern Ireland has been plunged into political crisis amid reports that the first minister, the DUP’s Paul Givan, is to resign over Brexit....The reported move comes just days after the DUP gave Brussels a 21 February deadline to resolve the dispute over Brexit checks and just hours after Stormont’s agriculture minister, Edwin Poots, also a DUP representative, ordered a halt to Brexit checks on food and farm products coming into Northern Ireland from Great Britain.

[If Givan resigns] The Northern Ireland executive would be unable to approve a three-year budget that is currently out to consultation. Also under threat would be the appointment of a victims’ commissioner to deal with Troubles legacy killings and injuries and a scheme to give householders a £200 grant against rising energy bills....The latest DUP manoeuvres are being seen by rivals as positioning ahead of the May elections and come amid repeated threats by the party leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, to quit Stormont over the Brexit checks. The party’s popularity has fallen over its handling of Brexit,

The Gruan hopes that 'Sinn Féin [will be] in pole position to be the largest party for the first time according to recent opinion polls'. That will be good for the Graun because Sinn Fein are pro unity and pro EU, but the polls were taken while the DUP was seen as compromised over Brexit, of course.