Morning View: Protocol harm is focus, not SF theatrics

The government’s push to restore power-sharing, by convening talks in Belfast, got off to an unpromising start.

Sinn Fein and the SDLP refused to meet the Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, because Mary-Lou McDonald claimed she was ‘excluded’ from the meeting.

Firstly, it should be noted that Ms McDonald’s attendance created genuine issues for the government. She is leader of the opposition in the Republic and protocol dictates that Mr Cleverly should meet his Dublin counterpart, Micheal Martin, before speaking to opposition leaders.

It is not the UK’s problem that Sinn Fein acts as if it were operating across one jurisdiction rather than two, or that it likes to pretend that the international border on this island does not exist. Serious politicians have to deal with the world as it is.

That the SDLP pandered to Sinn Fein’s logic is just the latest example of that party failing to challenge its rival. For many decades, it has effectively surrendered control of the nationalist narrative to republicanism.

In a statement about his visit, Mr Cleverly recognised “we need to address those issues with the (Northern Ireland) Protocol that risk and undermine the place of NI in the UK”.

His emphasis on the constitutional problems created by the sea border is welcome.

Indeed, that must be central to any solution, even if the EU prefers to focus on technical points and symptoms of the protocol, like the volume of customs checks.

As regards the restoration of Stormont, the government’s chief challenge is to persuade unionists that it really will prioritise repairing the damage that its Brexit deal did to the Union.

It should not let itself get distracted from this task by Sinn Fein’s theatrics.