London's plans for dealing with the legacy of terror in Northern Ireland have now taken a step backwards

The consequences of that mostly IRA bloodshed have been huge, yet processes for examining the past have turned against the security forces who defeated them.

After rightly trying to shut down the worst excesses of this imbalance, last night the UK government returned to concessions to nationalist Ireland on legacy. It is important to use that term, 'nationalist Ireland,' when it comes to legacy, and not to talk about republicans. The position of the Irish government and the SDLP on how to handle the past is barely different Sinn Fein.

Behind all the soft talk about the need for consensus and listening to ‘key stakeholders’ on the past, nationalism has succeeded in getting what that excellent academic critic of the legacy scandal, Dr Cillian McGrattan, has rightly denounced as a 'transitional justice' approach to our history. In other words, we were all to blame and are transitioning to a new paradigm in which we can look neutrally on the wrongdoing of all 'actors' in the conflict.

This is a way of steering the debate towards the assumption that the UK was a gangster state like a South American junta, an inversion of the truth.

Yet as the legacy bill was being debated in the House of Lords yesterday, London revealed changes that seemed to suit voices who want sanctions for terrorists who will not co-operate with the new legacy investigative body. In fact, such reforms have been dwarfed by ministers embedding an 'Article Two' approach into its bill, which will help keep the focus on past UK wrongdoing.

The investigators will get even more scope to carry out criminal probes, which is likely to turn against the security forces. Legacy, which has never been properly addressed, has just taken a dangerous turn.