Others have been focusing on the procedural trees rather than political wood involved in the decriminalisation of abortion and the legalisation of equal marriage, marked by a parade of wounded impotence in Stormont afterwards by the stoney-faced DUP leadership. Were they trying on the martyrs’ crown for the benefit of their supporters in the belief that this usually works when the leading local parties fail to get their way by bullying and caucus management?
For GB and maybe even for NI this significant constitutional moment seemed overshadowed by the latest and perhaps last twists in the Brexit saga.
Abortion campaigners are entitled to their elation as a result of the unique victory achieved by the rebel majority of MPs. Indeed sadly, it may turn out to be their only one.
The DUP who are of course nothing if not constitutional purists may lament the overturning of the constitutional protocols of devolution in response to the continued absence of the Assembly They failed to convince that only Sinn Fein were to blame and that this should have allowed them to retain a moral legislative veto.
The episode shows both, how fragile these protocols can be , but also how robust, applying to Northern Ireland with the tacit approval of Dublin.
The passage of these reforms also demonstrates that the Union is more than a vehicle for the interests and opinions of Ulster unionism which has always thought of itself as a distinct nationalism of its own. Its dependence on British opinion over these reforms and Brexit when it really matters has been dramatically demonstrated in ways inconceivable a generation ago. True, it only happened because Northern Ireland was an element in a bigger political game. But historically, there is nothing new in that.
Nationalists, please note and acknowledge. The zeitgiest does not operate in only one direction. But will the DUP learn anything from these last couple of weeks other than a renewed sense of grievance and betrayal?
They will be in a quandary, even disorientated. Belief in direct rule as an expedient has turned to ashes. The real lesson is that they will have to compromise with nationalism at a higher point than they would have thought possible even three years ago. They should be helped by the two governments recovering their sense of shared interests, once the immediate crisis of Brexit is over.
The attempt of Michael Gove to threaten the DUP with the prospect of No Deal and a border poll in order to win back their support for the new Withdrawal Bill is infantile. It will allow the DUP to demonstrate what is meant by principles.
Former BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and Parliamentary Programmes, BBC Westminster; former London Editor Belfast Telegraph. Hon Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, Univ Coll. London
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