Leaving aside the relative party strengths shown in the latest LucidTalk poll, the rank order of which hasn’t changed, what is remarkable is the stark difference between what nationalist and unionist voters regard as their most important concerns.

An astonishing 71% of unionist voters (DUP, UUP, TUV) placed commitment to the union as their most pressing issue, whereas only 51% of nationalist voters ranked commitment to Irish reunification highest.

For them, most important was the cost of living (66%), followed by the health service (63%). Incredibly, for unionists, opposing the Protocol/Windsor Framework (45%) was almost as important as concern about the health service (47%).

Unionist priorities are distinctly odd because there’s nothing they or their political representatives can do about them.

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Feeney on Friday: Unionists need to realise that when English politicians talk about the ‘union’, they mean Scotland

Take opposition to the Windsor Framework. Obviously Conservatives support it since they negotiated it, but one of the few references to the north in the Labour party manifesto says it “is committed to implement the........

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