Fear and loathing hasten DUP’s decline

Power is slipping away from the Democratic Unionist Party. After two decades as Northern Ireland’s dominant political force, Jeffrey Donaldson’s party is now in serious decline — and it has discreetly accepted this. Just as political leaders are mortal, so parties live and at some point die. The DUP is not yet dead, and might rally, but it is in acute peril. Even if it defies pollsters to beat Sinn Féin in May’s election and remains the biggest party, its future looks increasingly grim.