Technical fixes do not address Unionist's more visceral concerns

Almost unnoticed, a key provision of the Windsor Framework took effect on Sunday with imports entering Northern Ireland from Britain subject to a new traffic light system. Goods coming into the province en route to the Republic of Ireland or elsewhere in the EU will use the red lane, which includes customs declarations and some checks. Those to be sold in Northern Ireland will use the green lane with minimal paperwork and no checks. This was hailed as an early success for Rishi Sunak and endorsed in the Commons by a majority close to 500, despite the opposition of the DUP and two former prime ministers.

Yet it has not succeeded in its principal aim, which was to set the political weather for a return of Stormont. The power-sharing institutions have been frozen since the DUP withdrew in protest at the Brexit deal which left Northern Ireland still in the single market, treated differently from the rest of the UK. The DUP still takes the view that the framework leaves Northern Ireland semi-detached from the rest of the country, and wants Mr Sunak to reopen talks with the EU to secure an agreement based on the mutual recognition of goods. However, there is little appetite in Whitehall, let alone in Brussels, to do so.

Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland Secretary, hailed the new traffic light system as a boon, maintaining that the vast majority of economic life remains “umbilically connected to the rest of the UK”, untouched by the Windsor Framework. But this is less about economics than symbolism and what it says about the status of the province within the kingdom. Cutting paperwork and offering trusted trader status to compliant businesses may work at a technical level but it still does not address Unionists’ more visceral concern.