As I settled down after a long day at work, to sketch out this piece in anticipation of the historic result of the recall petition against Ian Paisley Jnr – MP for North Antrim and son of the famous Rev Ian Paisley, founder of the DUP – Sam Cooke crackled into my headphones. Unprompted, he began to croon that a change is going to come.

Drowning in pessimism, I was certain that he was wrong.

Paisley was suspended from the House of Commons for 30 days in June for accepting – then not disclosing – luxury holidays to Sri Lanka worth an estimated £100,000, followed by lobbying the PM to not support a UN investigation into Sri Lankan state atrocities. This was not the first time he had been accused of misconduct, and the suspension opened a recall procedure in his constituency, whereby if 10 per cent of the electorate signed the petition, a by-election would be triggered.

In North Antrim, that meant 7,543 signatures were needed. In the end, the petition fell short by a mere 444 votes.

Brexit casualties Show all 10 1 /10 Brexit casualties Brexit casualties Andrea Jenkyns - Resigned from Parliamentary Private Secretary at the ministry for housing, communities and local government role May 2018 - The Morley and Outwood MP said: “We want to see a new relationship with Europe, with a new model not enjoyed by other countries – nothing that leaves us half-in, half-out. “And in order to achieve this, we need to leave the customs union.” Ms Jenkyn’s also said she wished to dedicate more of her time to Parliament’s influential Exiting the European Union select committee, after a series of “unbalanced” reports produced by MPs PA Brexit casualties David Davis - Resigned from Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union role July 2018 - quit following a major row with May over her plans for post-Brexit relations with the EU. Davis resignation letter said: “As you know there have been a significant number of occasions in the last year or so on which I have disagreed with the Number 10 policy line, ranging from accepting the [European] Commission’s sequencing of negotiations, through to the language on Northern Ireland in the December Joint Report. “At each stage I have accepted collective responsibility because it is part of my task to find workable compromises, and because I considered it was still possible to deliver on the mandate of the referendum, and on our manifesto commitment to leave the Customs Union and the Single Market. “I am afraid that I think the current trend of policy and tactics is making that look less and less likely.” He went on to argue that the “general direction” of Ms May’s policies would leave the UK “in at best a weak negotiating position, and possibly an inescapable one”. AFP/Getty Brexit casualties Steve Baker - Resigned from Minister at the Department for Exiting the European Union role July 2018 - Mr Baker, a key Tory figure in the Leave campaign, was David Davis’s main lieutenant at Dexeu, and was hailed as ”courageous and principled” by other Brexiteer Tories as he also left. Reuters Brexit casualties Boris Johnson - Resigned from Foreign Secretary role July 2018 - resigned over May's Chequers plan. In his resignation letter to the prime minister, Mr Johnson said: "On Friday, I acknowledged that my side of the argument were too few to prevail and congratulated you on at least reaching a Cabinet decision on the way forward. "As I said then, the government now has a song to sing. "The trouble is that I have practised the words over the weekend and find that they stick in the throat." Reuters Brexit casualties Conor Burns - Resigned from Parliamentary Private Secretary to Foreign Secretary role July 2018 - A Brexit supporter who worked alongside Boris Johnson stated in his resignation letter: “I've decided it's time to have greater freedom. I want to see the referendum result respected. And there are other areas of policy I want to speak more openly on.” Rex Brexit casualties Chris Green - Resigned from Department for Transport role July 2018 - The Bolton West MP said: "Parliament overwhelmingly decided to give the decision of whether to leave or remain in the European Union to the British people and they made an unambiguous decision that we ought to leave. "I have always understood the idea in 'Brexit means Brexit' is that the final deal should be clear to me and my constituents - that we have, in no uncertain terms, left the European Union. Twitter Ads info and privacy "The direction the negotiations had been taking have suggested that we would not really leave the EU and the conclusion and statements following the Chequers summit confirmed my fears. "I recognise that delivering Brexit is challenging, however I had hoped at tonight's meeting that there would be some certainty that my fears were unfounded but, instead, they have been confirmed. "I have been grateful for the opportunity to serve as Parliamentary Private Secretary and it is with regret that I offer my resignation with immediate effect." PA Brexit casualties Maria Caulfield - Resigned from Conservative Party vice-chair for women role July 2018 - resigned over May's Chequers plan. Lewes MP warned that the direction of travel did “not fully embrace the opportunities that Brexit can provide”. Ms Caulfield said in her letter to the PM: “The policy may assuage vested interests, but the voters will find out and their representatives will be found out. This policy will be bad for our country and bad for the party. “The direct consequences of that will be prime minister Corbyn.” PA Brexit casualties Ben Bradley - Resigned from Conservative Party vice-chair for young people role July 2018 - resigned over May's Chequers plan. The Mansfield MP said: “I admit that I voted to Remain in that ballot. What has swayed me over the last two years to fully back the Brexit vision is the immense opportunities that are available from global trade, and for the ability for Britain to be an outward looking nation in control of our own destiny once again. “I fear that this agreement at Chequers damages those opportunities; that being tied to EU regulations, and the EU tying our hands when seeking to make new trade agreements, will be the worst of all worlds if we do not deliver Brexit in spirit as well as in name, then we are handing Jeremy Corbyn the keys to No10.” PA Brexit casualties Robert Courts - Resigned from Parliamentary Private Secretary role July 2018 - resigned over May's Chequers plan. MP Mr Courts said: “I have taken a very difficult decision to resign my position as [parliamentary private secretary] to express discontent with the Chequers [plans] in votes tomorrow. “I had to think who I wanted to see in the mirror for the rest of my life. I cannot tell the people of Woxon that I support the proposals in their current form.” Getty Brexit casualties Scott Mann - Resigned from Parliamentary Private Secretary role July 2018 - resigned over May's Chequers plan. "I fear elements of the Brexit white paper will inevitably put me in direct conflict with the views expressed by a large section of my constituents. I am not prepared to compromise their wishes to deliver a watered-down Brexit. "The residents of North Cornwall made it very clear that they wish to have control over our fishery, our agricultural policy, our money, our laws and our borders. I will evaluate those principles against the Brexit white paper and ensure that I vote in line with their wishes." Rex

In Paisley's last election win, 20,000 voters cast ballots for non-DUP parties. In that election, there were 49 voting booths to do so across North Antrim. For the recall petition, the electoral commission only opened three booths across the whole constituency of just under 76,000 voters.

On top of this, at the main booth in a local leisure centre, there was no anonymity. Unlike with elections, attending a booth for a recall petition indicates in itself your voting intention. Despite this, the positioning of the booth made it extremely public who was voting, so much so the local Sinn Fein representative demanded it be changed. The electoral commission moved it, to an area of the centre which was completely impossible to find – you had to go through a myriad of back staircases and even a fire door. It was so poor it then had to be moved back.

Some wannabe voters were turned away at the booth, as they arrived at the wrong one of the three, due to the complicated nature of the process.

In anticipation of these factors, I tried my damnedest to bring together all the local representatives of the non-DUP parties to undersign a letter, encouraging their support for the petition. The UUP, Alliance and the TUV all dismissed the idea, saying they were confident the recall petition would pass. The only party that seemed to actively campaign was Sinn Fein.

The nonchalant nature of the opposition politicians highlights again the complete disconnect between politics and populous in Northern Ireland – they were so confident that the local community knew the ins and outs of Paisley's scandal. They shouldn't feel anger at this result but a profound sense of embarrassment that they've allowed completely unacceptable behaviour to avoid further punishment by this travesty of a process.

Arlene Foster says Sinn Fein voters switching to DUP over abortion following Irish referendum

Most galling for me is the wide smirk that will be laced across the face of an MP found to have brought parliament into disrepute by historical proportions. It is completely typical of the man that he has immediately sought to boast "90.6 per cent of the electorate have accepted my apology". This flagrant misreading of the result rides roughshod over the reality of how shockingly this whole thing has been run and how contemptible his record as my local representative is.

Not only is Paisley banned from parliament for another two months, last week further damning revelations hit the press about one of his fundraisers – now it is clear two councils sympathetic to the DUP each paid ratepayers' money for a table at his fundraising event. That's £3,000 of tax payers' money into his re-election war chest. Both the audit office and electoral commission are investigating.

This result is not a vote of confidence in a shockingly poor MP – it is an indication of how much Northern Irish voters have turned their back on local politics, and how drastically the electoral commission failed to facilitate those wanting to sign the petition.

So at the end of this chapter, Paisley Jnr remains – as do the empty shop fronts that litter my town, the redundancy notices that are still sliding through some factory workers' doors and the uncertainty for the businesses that rely upon EU access and workers to run.

And unfortunately, this isn’t all the electorate are having to deal with.

Ian Paisley Jnr (left) is the son of the founder of the DUP, Reverend Ian Paisley

The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) inquiry continues to shed more light on the inner workings of the DUP and Stormont in general. Alongside Arlene Foster not reading legislation before she brings it to the assembly, or anyone reading a £100,000 report detailing the RHI scheme's anticipated failings, it was revealed that Sinn Fein and the DUP required civil servants to communicate with them via post-it note, so it couldn't be caught by Freedom of Information requests.

On top of this is a ridiculous story, also detailed in evidence to the RHI Inquiry, of how the DUP enterprise minister allegedly got kicked out of a New York bar on a trade trip for being so drunk he fell asleep , and was subsequently said to be too hungover to properly engage in the meeting that they flew over for. It's funny until you realise my local factory closed down under his watch after he never responded to a letter detailing Union fears it could close down and how the government could take steps to fix it. The minister never replied, and 1,000 jobs were lost.

Then there's Brexit.

Northern Irish people remain a passive, mute furniture in this debate. The difficulty of Brexit for us is that both the UK and the EU positions will change our constitutional position.

The UK chose red lines that necessitate a customs border but refuse to accept that it's the inevitable consequence of their choices. The EU (and Ireland) claim they're fighting for the interests of Northern Ireland, to prevent a hard Irish border when in fact it's more nuanced than that – they want no border for the Republic of Ireland, but the EU position creates a border for Northern Ireland, slashing across the UK East-West, rather than across Ireland North-South.

It seems here nothing changes but the seasons: North Antrim remains within the DUP’s careless, damaging grasp, devolution has not returned but politicians continue to get their exorbitant pay checks and there is no certainty on how Brexit will affect us.