Consent is not an inconvenience to be worked around, but the cornerstone of stability. If the AIA’s legacy tells us anything forty years on, it is that Northern Ireland endures only when both traditions feel heard, respected, and protected – not managed.
The Legacy Act was an ambitious attempt to close the book on the Troubles. But it was fatally flawed. By prioritising tidy finality over messy justice, it alienated victims, angered parties, drew legal challenge, and lacked legitimacy.
Hopes for normal, non-sectarian and growth-focused politics have been dashed as rent-seeking hard-liners dominate at Stormont.
Nearly seven years after the campaign, we are finally moving towards the kind of deal we might have had all along had we never joined.
A solution that addresses unionist concerns and wins back cross-community consensus for any new governance framework is the only way to achieve the aims of the Protocol that the EU and UK signed up for in the first place
Also: having missed his self-imposed deadline of October 28th, Heaton-Harris changes the law to push Stormont vote back to April.
Also: Unionist parties divided as Stormont passes controversial education bill; Baillie says Labour wrong to work with Tories.
Plus: Biden was the adult in the room at the G7. And: Why I support mandatory vaccinations for care home workers.
The third article in a five-part ConHome series this week on the future of the United Kingdom.
The different administrations are all in different places with increasing bad blood between them. Also, devosceptics look set to win seats in Wales.
The Prime Minister pledged to defend those who defended us. I believe him.
Why has the Government signed off a safeguard which Sinn Féin can disable by collapsing Northern Ireland’s devolved institutions again?