Editorial: Hilary Benn's speech today seems set to delight nationalists and the Irish government

​Hilary Benn will today in Oxfordshire elaborate on the Labour government’s gushing new approach to a Republic of Ireland that has hardly been the UK’s friend.

​The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland is set to give the keynote speech at the annual British-Irish Association Conference.

A foretaste of the speech was sent to the media yesterday. If it is reflects the content of Mr Benn’s message then it will delight the Tánaiste, Micheál Martin, and the Sinn Fein first minister and finance minister Michelle O’Neill and Conor Murphy, all in the audience.

Mr Benn is due to say that London’s “commitment to the Good Friday Agreement is absolute.” Does he mean by what the last government meant? That it includes the principle of consent, and is not merely a document for nationalists? Let us hope he finds a way to say that.

He will also say: "Our support for the European Convention on Human Rights, which underpins the Good Friday Agreement, is unwavering.” That shows no understanding of how the convention has become unsuited to modern challenges such as mass migration and terrorism, but it does delay a huge coming challenge for unionists – when a different UK quits the ECHR but NI is not allowed to be included.

Another snippet of his speech is that the UK “will implement the Windsor Framework". Did Safeguarding the Union not happen?

Mr Benn seems set to condemn the previous government on legacy but there is no clue that he is going to chide an Irish Republic that harboured the IRA yet has the nerve to sue the UK on legacy.

Worst of all, he is set to say that if Stormont comes down again “our two governments as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, along with the parties, would need to find a new way forward”. That suggests joint stewardship? If so, when SF next pull out they will get the huge reward of constitutional change.