The recent “Safeguarding the Union” Command Paper claimed to

“copper-fasten Northern Ireland’s political and constitutional place in the Union,” yet the British-Irish agreement makes it clear that the agreed position is

“for the people of the island of Ireland alone, by agreement between the two parts respectively and without external impediment, to exercise their right of self-determination”.

How does the Secretary of State square that clear contradiction in the UK Government’s commitments to all the people of Northern Ireland?