Andy Burnham turned up in Belfast last week. Better if he hadn’t, to be honest.

He was like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice in overdrive. The mess he left heading home to the newly-formed ‘United Kingdom of Greater Manchester and Northern Ireland’ merely demonstrates how far out of his depth he is.

Everything changes and nothing alters.

Since the appointment of Willie Whitelaw as the first Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in 1972, successive British ministers have shown a total lack of understanding about this fake state, its shameful history, and Britain’s role in making it a world centre for sectarianism, injustice and the abuse of fundamental rights.

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Just two prime ministers – John Major and the now toxic Tony Blair – showed any understanding for the nuances of the place, and that was in large part due to the influence of Albert Reynolds, John Bruton and Bertie Ahern.

After the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, Downing Street took its foot off the gas and it has been downhill from there.

Brown, Cameron, May, Johnson, the Lettuce, Sunak and, lately, Starmer have each turned a blind eye to........

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