Last Sunday, if you bought Rupert Murdoch’s Sunday Times north of the Border or in Britain, you would have had the pleasure of reading Rod Liddle’s column on an opinion poll suggesting there might be a majority in Northern Ireland for a united Ireland.

“I’m all for that if it means a united Ireland under British control. I think the Irish would be delighted to reacquaint themselves with the immeasurable benefits of rule from Westminster. I suppose it is possible, if improbable, that the poll meant a united Ireland under Dublin’s control, but I find that hard to believe. Even if some commentators have suggested, darkly, that this was the intention of the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, all along, his unneighbourly intransigence and spite designed to reignite the issue.”