From what I've read from posters far more savvy about British politics than me, the DUP are pretty comparable to US Republicans, especially socially (anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, pro-Catholic religious rights, etc.). HOWEVER, the one thing they break with most right-wing groups is they favor soft as possible borders, more specifically with Ireland. This is due to the legacy of The Troubles and the cornerstone of the Good Friday Agreement, which mandated the NI and Irish border must be totally open, and any attempt to place restrictions on that open border is directly in violation of the Agreement, which the whole Peace In Our Era in NI is based upon. The Open Border is the reason why the economy in NI has been improving at all, and of course no one wants to risk The Troubles starting up again. Thus, they A) didn't want Brexit to begin with and B) since Brexit is happening, they demand as Soft a Brexit as possible to keep the Irish border open, since Ireland obviously is still part of the EU.TheReal_ND wrote:I thought DUP was pro immigration reform though. I literally never heard of them before last week.
As you can imagine, this puts them directly opposed to the Tories, who until now have been campaigning on a Hard Brexit. But the Tories have been forced into a deal with the DUP, because literally every other party who could help give them a majority is even more opposed to them. This is why people are expecting another General Election within the year: the current Parliament makeup is clearly unstable and unsustainable for anyone who wants anything to get done, especially with the Brexit deadline looming in less than two years.
