I concluded long ago that "the Irish problem" is impossible for this outsider to fathom, so I can't disagree with wiser heads.
What I do think is that the Conservatives have done what might turn out to be a great deal more harm than they anticipated by widdling on the assurances in the Good Friday Agreement with the NI protocol. A lot of people hung their credibility on it and now the loyalists in particular are mightily peed off. The loyalists thought they were part of Britain, the Nationalists could pretend they were part of Ireland since they inhabited the same economic zone (i.e. the EU) and there is no land border. Characteristically, Johnson swore he would not upset this balance, and promptly did, with predictable consequences.
Again characteristically, the EU is being blamed for doing "too many checks" at NI ports under the protocol, which Johnson said he can renege on, having left the EU (I might not have got that bit quite right, TBH it didn't make any sense to me). That the loyalists would be incensed by the EU controlling its border between the UK mainland and NI is not exactly a surprise.
Johnson could yet be remembered as the PM who lost Scotland and reignited Northern Ireland.
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