For most of my lifetime I’ve been listening to unionist leaders telling me why successive outcomes can’t or won’t happen: no British government would ever get rid of the Stormont parliament; there would never be mandatory powersharing between unionists and nationalists; there would never be a formal “Irish dimension” in Northern Ireland politics; the British/Irish governments would never agree to a “joint sovereignty” deal over the heads of a unionist majority; unionists would never share power with Sinn Féin; the DUP would never share power with Sinn Féin; there would be a unionist majority in Belfast City Council for decades to come; unionists wouldn’t lose their overall majority in the Assembly. Feel free to add to that list.

Peter Robinson – one of the canniest political and electoral strategists in British politics – would have had that list in mind when he made his “I don’t expect my own house to burn down . . . but I still insure it” comment last Friday.