Let us hope that the row over Dominic Cummings shortens the rule of a prime minister who has damaged unionism

(The letter can be read here: ‘Unionists should make clear that they will all quit Stormont the moment an Irish Sea border comes into operation’)

How do we react to the Irish Sea border that Boris Johnson has denied, but that is already taking shape ?

Linked to this Kirk makes the correct and chilling point about Northern Ireland being at risk of becoming an EU colony, and the Republic of Ireland appointing itself as Northern Ireland’s representative in Brussels.

People should be furious, as I have been for a while. But, in terms of what unionist policies should be to handle all this, I’m still just thinking it through.

That said, it’s probably the case that collapsing Stormont, or even threatening to, would be counter-productive, in all kinds of ways, just as Brexit has unleashed a catastrophic and unpredictable chain of events.

Instead it’s time to be counter-intuitive but also as careful as we can be. We are approaching the centenary of the Northern Ireland state.

We need to make NI more state-like, not less. We need the full range of state institutions to build a political, economic and cultural unit with a specific NI identity, within the UK.

An interesting aspect of political institutions, specifically parliaments and assemblies, is that once established they are seldom abolished.

The London mayor and assembly are here for good. The same is true of the Scottish and Welsh parliaments.

A strong, progressive identity for Northern Ireland cannot be maintained without Stormont, with all the faults of the present system.

In fact, whisper it quietly, the more Sinn Fein is involved the more difficult it will be for them to destroy it.

Unionists must never be blamed for bringing down the assembly. That is a sanction that we should reserve specifically for Sinn Fein.

They have already done it once. They will probably not dare do it again, even though they must realise that the longer NI state institutions continue, the more embedded and normal they could become.

A young person now, living in Belfast, from the nationalist tradition, could grow up to be a minister, first minister or powerful civil service permanent secretary. And he or she would only have to jump on the bus to get to work, as long as Stormont and NI remain.

We need to bring about the mindset in which they would ask themselves, why would I give all this up, and hand power and job opportunities over to the vested interests of Dublin, many miles away?

As for mitigating the damage of the Irish Sea border I have said before that we should encourage even more NI-GB trade in the short term, as well as getting the best initial deal possible. But, no long term solution will be possible while Boris Johnson is prime minister.

Boris, chastened and buffeted by events, is already looking a little tired, as is the wing of the Conservative Party currently in charge.

No future prime minister, now that Mr Corbyn has gone, could be as bad for Northern Ireland as this one. Let’s hope his special advisor Dominic Cummings, himself no friend of NI, will help to shorten this prime minister’s tenure and we can start again, rolling back at least some of the errors that he is making.

John Gemmell, Wem, Shropshire