Ahead of the DUP's annual conference, there's been a lot of speculation about how Geoffrey Donaldson might be preparing to manoeuvre his party into calling off its stormant boycott.

The ball still seems to be in the UK government's court, or at least that's how the DUP likes to portray it.

And movement, we're told, could be forthcoming on that any day now.

As far as Sir Geoffrey himself is concerned,

he's under pressure from all quarters,

party members who are worried he's about to fold.

Fellow unionists who think he's not tough enough,

others who think he's being too tough,

not to mention those from within nationalism

who point the finger at the DEP,

for allowing a vacuum to develop

at such a challenging time here politically.

So, Geoffrey Donaldson is no shortage of critics out there.

But is there an argument that Sir Geoffrey is actually playing a blinder by holding the UK

government's feet to the fire, by keeping his party together, by making it hard for his

enemies to move against him?

That's what we're discussing on this edition of Red Lines in the company of our political editor, Enda McLafordy, the Balfast Telegraph's

political editor, Suzanne Breen and the commentator Chris Donnelly. Welcome to all of you. Enda,

first things first. Does Geoffrey Donaldson have a plan? I think he does have a plan, Mark, and I think obviously we're not going to be able to assess whether or not he is playing a blinder until we get to the final phase of this process. Something's on the table and he's able to sell to his party and then sell to the wider unionist electorate out there. But he will point to the fact that people said that the Northern Ireland

protocol was not for renegotiation. We know what happened in the Windsor framework, of course.

Brussels did move on what they conceded in the Windsor framework. So of course, Sir Geoffrey

Donaldson will say that despite all the doom and gloom around that process, that there was

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