Brexit has busted the myth of the fragile Union

As 2017 draws to a close, the United Kingdom is in better shape than many of its supporters had dared to hope.

Henry Hill: Davies attacks the Welsh political class for anti-Brexit groupthink

Also: Cairns criticised over future of Swansea tidal lagoon; SNP squeeze private schools as teacher crisis deepends; and Foster ‘was not fully warned’ about RHI risks.

Iain Dale: May weebly wobbles on (and on and on and on)

Plus: We’ll never know the truth about the rebels’ motives. If you have fewer MPs, you must also have fewer Ministers. And: doesn’t Steve Baker have a fine head of hair?

Henry Hill: Davidson’s Westminster timetable has been clear since June

Also: Sargeant’s son to contest his seat at Welsh by-election; and Labour may use direct rule to align Northern Irieland with the mainland on abortion and gay marriage.

British/Irish stew

The deal’s internal contradictions are coming back to haunt it, to the confusion of May, Varadkar, Juncker, Barnier – the whole lot of them.

James Arnell: Brexit. What we should do now

We need a new negotiating team – who will come in hard, making it clear to the EU that we are not going to roll over.

Iain Dale: Playing truth or dare with Jacqui Smith

Plus: May’s EU trials, Labour’s EU shifts – and how Russia got there before Trump by recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Well, part of it.

Henry Hill: Democratic Unionists set their sights on Hermon after Brexit clash

Also: Welsh Labour abandon investigation into Sargeant as Jones faces fresh accusations; and Mundell suggests a dangerous retreat on EU powers.

Andrew Gimson’s PMQs sketch: Corbyn was so useless he relieved the pressure on May

But Rees-Mogg, Jenkin and Bone indicated that her problem is not just with the DUP. It is with her own party.

WATCH: Foster – “Northern Ireland must leave the EU on the same terms as the rest of the United Kingdom”

The DUP leader rejects “any form of regulatory divergence which separates Northern Ireland economically or politically from the rest of the UK”.

Owen Polley: The Government’s plan does not consign Northern Ireland to the Customs Union

Of course Ulster’s trade with the mainland must be protected as top priority, but a degree of flexibility on regulations in a small number of sectors is sensible.

Henry Hill: Tory and Plaid fury as Jones whips AMs against inquiry into bullying

Also: DUP gear up for enhanced role whilst working on border compromise; and Holyrood committee shows its teeth and plunges SNP policy into chaos.

Profile: Arlene Foster, standing firm for Britain in Belfast

The DUP leader has not yet shown she knows how to make the strange machinery set up in Stormont work.

Brexit. How Britain’s lack of interest in Ireland, and Ireland’s lack of imagination about Britain, join to threaten disaster

Dublin likes to cite the Belfast Agreement, and we certainly all need what it exemplified – that’s to say, a good old-fashioned face-saving fudge.

Graham Gudgin: Brussels and Dublin should stop playing games with the Irish border issue

A sensible solution is achievable, but unnecessary brinksmanship and over-the-top rhetoric helps nobody.