Unionism has been largely mute about the major trade border that is being set up in the Irish Sea

He tackled the matter of “living with” the coronavirus. The Friday a fortnight before that, Mr Robinson called for a pro Union think tank to make the case for Northern Ireland’s place in the UK.

The latter is a good idea, but unionism needs much more than that. The response to the multiple threats to unionism since 2016 has been confused, reticent and weak.

Above all, the emergence of a major trade border in the Irish Sea, a disastrous development, has had a mute reaction. All the main business organisations supported the backstop, which was the precursor to this internal UK barrier because it took as its premise the notion that nothing at all could change at the land frontier, not even CCTV.

Now we report on the detailed work in constructing infrastructure for the new sea border.

Jim Allister QC, as ever, is one of the few politicians who is repeatedly speaking out against this scandal. Meanwhile, London — which seems to have concluded long ago that unionists will oppose almost nothing — is set to agree to let EU officials man this internal UK frontier.

After the song and dance the Tories made about opposing an EU office in Belfast, Boris Johnson’s government has conceded something more significant. Brussels and Dublin must laugh at how easy it is to get what they want.

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