His expertise and long experience will be useful if the Government does go ahead with triggering Article 16.
Also: Ministers give opponents of Troubles amnesty six weeks to propose alternatives and square off to the devocrats over freeports.
An agreement to extend grace periods would avoid the Government having to do so unilaterally, as it did previously.
Granting ‘Royal status’ to Hillsborough is the latest small but welcome step by the Government to do just that.
The UK competes as itself too rarely to allow the Corporation’s complacency to let Britain down. Time to bring some Olympic focus.
Meanwhile, the Scottish Tories double down on their referendum threat… whilst the SNP start to back off from the idea.
As a member of his first Cabinet, I was tested in Northern Ireland – as elsewhere the new government reduced the defict and reformed public services.
To respect devolution, the UK Government must not impose such a drastic development on the Province. Is this a test run for England?
It’s deeply disturbing for many that a modern European democracy might shortly be led by a party that continues to have its strategy overseen by an Army Council.
Also: Plaid fined almost £30,000 for misreporting donations worth half a million pounds; Labour hopefuls sing from devolution’s tattered hymnal; and more.
Grasping this nettle will involve appointing someone prepared to be considerably less popular with sections of the gallery than was their predecessor.
Also: Spotlight on the literal handful of MPs providing Stormont’s entire opposition; and Scottish Tories offer a budget deal to the SNP.
Setting aside the Ulster-specific sections, the proposals for reviving Stormont pledges frictionless trade with the mainland and a commitment on legacy prosecutions.
Strengthening Ulster’s bonds with the mainland starts with ending the de facto exile of its unionist politics – if Johnson and Foster have the imagination and will to see it done.
It is a shame that IRA violence – and Westminster neglect – undid the hopeful and constructive spirit in which Stormont was born.