THE forelock-tugging unionist media here eagerly await the arrival of the new proconsul, full of anticipation about what changes he will make to legacy legislation, to Stormont’s fraught budget arguments, to reform of the toytown Ruritanian procedures.

The short answer is none. There are several reasons for that.

First, there’s the naïve assumption among fawning commentators that because there’s a new British prime minister, brimming with new ideas about devolving power to regions, reforming business rates, housing and what not, that any of that stuff will apply here. It won’t.

Burnham and his cabinet are locked in a desperate, headlong rush to bring change to people’s lives in England before next May’s local government elections, including electing some mayors.

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Two wasted years of Starmer miserabilism have spurred the urgency.

As Angela Rayner told the BBC last Friday: “We’re living on borrowed time if we don’t get a move on.”

Secondly, devolution has failed here.

The DUP refuse to operate power-sharing, instead concentrating on provoking Sinn Féin by shamelessly favouring DUP voters, while blocking any amelioration SF proposes either through legal action at the public’s expense or refusing to discuss........

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