The peace process was achieved and has survived so long because the Good Friday agreement guaranteed "equality of esteem" for those who aspired to Irish unity and those who aspired to British union, and was conceived in the context of both Ireland and the EU being in the EU and of national borders and differences becoming ever less significant in the context of "an ever closer union."

In that context 56% of the people of N. Ireland voted to remain in the EU. Instead, with Brexit, they are out of the EU and its ever closer union between states.

What they get instead is a free trade deal on goods, some regulatory alignment, and a customs union with the EU.

Nothing on services, and everything else the EU stands for is gone. No Fundamental Charter on Human rights, no recourse to the ECJ. As the UK and EU diverge in the future, so too will N. Ireland and Ireland. Erasmus is gone too unless N. Ireland citizens opt for Irish citizenship. and apply through the Irish scheme.

So basically a unionist minority got the Brexit they wanted bar some compromises on trade in goods - which is a far cry from equality of esteem in all its respects guaranteed under the GFA. Instead there will be all sorts of divergences between the rights of Irish and British citizens in the North.

So I don't count this as a win for anyone in the North - just another element in a long, slow and painful economic and political decline.

Index of Frank's Diaries