COMMENT Northern Ireland passed a landmark on Tuesday. All the nationalist members of the Stormont Assembly and a majority of its unionist delegates voted to devolve control of the province’s law and order apparatus from London to local politicians. Gains made in Northern Ireland could yet unwind, but this is welcome progress towards stability and normalisation.
The importance of the vote was clear from the extraordinary transatlantic interest in it. George W. Bush interrupted his retirement to talk to David Cameron about the matter. He urged the Conservative leader to apply pressure to the Ulster Unionist party, with which the Tories have entered a misguided electoral alliance, to support this devolution.
