Money tree's grown on May

THERESA May has paid an enormous price to persuade the DUP to keep her teetering government in power.

There was no magic money tree to increase nurses’ wages, Mrs May said — but when it comes to the DUP there is.

1 PM Theresa May has made deal to stay in power

For £1billion, Mrs May bought the votes of ten Ulster MPs for the next two years. Let’s call that £50million, per vote, per ear.

It’s a very expensive way of clinging on to her job — and we all get to pay.

So what does £1billion mean, really? Perhaps it would help if we broke it up into small, easily digestible chunks.

For £1billion she could have replaced all the flammable cladding on the country’s high flats. Twice.

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It amounts to less than a tenth of the Northern Ireland Assembly’s budget but a similar cash injection for Scotland would see Holyrood spending soar by £3billion overnight — enough to boost NHS funding by around 30 per cent.

The average worker pays £6,000 in National Insurance and income tax, so 67,000 will work all year just to secure Mrs May’s grip on No10.

And the reason for all this generosity is clear.

DUP leader Arlene Foster said: “The Conservative Party has recognized the case for higher funding in Northern Ireland given our unique history and circumstances over recent decades.”

As taxpayers funding this deal, you are entitled to ask: “Why now?”

What was it about Northern Ireland’s unique history and circumstances that made the UK Government realise it needs more cash, right now?

What happened in the last month to make Mrs May realise Northern Ireland has been short changed by £1billion?

The answer is “absolutely nothing”. She simply decided to use public money to help her cling on to her job for another few months — maybe weeks.

But the Treasury pretends “this is about delivering for the whole UK”.

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And, in a surprise to absolutely nobody, Ruth Davidson has endorsed this all as a jolly good idea.

Last week Scotland Secretary David Mundell was absolutely clear that there could be no special deals for Northern Ireland without cash for Scotland too.

Yesterday his spokesman had found an escape hatch someplace in his tangled sentences, and the Secretary of State continues in post without any of that unpleasant resignation business.

It’s the same old story. The rules mean whatever the Tories say they mean.

Nobody should be surprised by that. Governments pay off whoever they have to pay off to survive.

The only surprising thing is they think we won’t notice.

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