It is the good old UK that has seen Northern Ireland financially through lockdown

When concern about Covid was approaching its peak, in mid March last year, there was a clamour in Northern Ireland to follow the Republic’s approach to the virus.

Nationalists gushed about the Republic’s early response and contrasted it with Boris Johnson’s, with some accusing the Tories of a cavalier attitude to deaths.

Some Catholic schools in NI ignored Department of Education advice and shut their schools early to chime with southern classroom closures.

Some criticisms of Britain’s response to Covid were fair, some hysterical. Over time, many first world countries have ended up with roughly similar outcomes from coronavirus, and even those that did particularly well or particularly badly fared so for reasons that are not yet fully understood.

But parts of the UK Covid response have been world-class.

The rollout of vaccines is one, as is the contribution of British scientists to those pioneering medications.

The Economist magazine is saying that the Oxford-Astra-Zeneca jab has probably saved more lives than any other.

Another British success has been the financial support.

Critics of the UK call it a mid ranking power, diminished by Brexit. But the UK is the world’s fifth largest economy.

In some respects Brexit was unluckily timed, happening just before the virus arrived. The transition period ended just as the economy was in the doldrums.

In another, the timing was fortuitous. Not only was the UK already out of the single currency, but by 2021 it was unshackled by Brussels constraints such as over vaccine distribution.

Treasury firepower was evident in the vastly generous furlough scheme (for which there was little thanks at Stormont, and rather complaint about the need for more funds).

We report today on how £7 billion of extra public cash was pumped into NI in 2020/21 compared to two years previously.

For all the talk of a ‘New Ireland’ it is the good old UK that has helped ensure we stayed easily afloat through lockdown.

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