Editorial: A clever speech in Belfast from President Joe Biden in which he was not as partisan as he has been before

The speech by President Joe Biden in Belfast yesterday was nothing like as bad as it could have been for unionists. ​​The US head of state seemed at pains to strike a neutral tone in his address, having been partisan during the painful post Brexit twists and turns. Mr Biden had at one point echoed threats about the UK not getting a US trade deal if the Irish land border row was not resolved to the satisfaction of nationalist Ireland.

The intervention of US politicians such as Mr Biden helped create the disastrous situation which pertains today, of a major internal trade barrier between NI and Great Britain – a situation alleviated somewhat but also upheld by the Windsor Framework. So it was easy for Mr Biden to be magnanimous. After all, nationalist Ireland got its demand. Even so, it is far preferable that he spoke respectfully of the Ulster Protestant tradition than otherwise. Imagine if the president had maintained a partisan approach in Northern Ireland by singling out unionists for criticism in a way that London, Dublin and Washington would not do when Sinn Fein kept Stormont down for three years over the Irish language.

It was clever of Mr Biden to joke about, but thus highlight, his (very real) English ancestry, to praise the Ulster Scots and, when he called on the DUP (without naming them) to restore Stormont, then humbly to point out it was not his place to instruct overseas leaders in what to do. He was trying to dispel perceptions of him (that his own past remarks have fuelled) and gently adding pressure to unionists while respecting their tradition.

But Mr Biden’s harshest words yesterday were for the Irish republican terrorists who tried to murder Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell. And he reminded us of the deep (though currently neglected) links between current day unionists and a still influential strain of American society.