Lord Bew (CB)

My Lords, although it is true, as has been acknowledged, that the impact of this SI will be slight to say the least, I accept that the Windsor Framework has been oversold. It was oversold by the Sunak Government and it has been oversold by this Government. But, then again, the Good Friday agreement was oversold by Tony Blair. The fact is that there is no possible better way forward for Northern Ireland in either case. The agreement exists. In both cases, these agreements were a result of a conflict and a historic compromise between profound forces both inside and outside Ireland. So the Windsor Framework is still a model of a way forward. One of the most important things about the Windsor Framework is the way it declares itself, on page 4, to be restoring the “balance” of the Good Friday agreement of 1998 in its three parts. This is very important. The work of the noble Lord, Lord Frost, on grace periods was, at the time, of tremendous importance for ensuring the stability of Northern Ireland. I recall it with admiration. But, that said, I disagree with what he has just said about the growing separation between Northern Ireland and Britain. The Windsor Framework says on page 5: “Inherent in this … way forward is the prospect of significant divergence between the two distinct economies on the island of Ireland … building on the existing differences in every area of economic … life such as services, migration, currency and taxation”. It might now have added defence; Harland & Wolff is now working on contracts for the Royal Navy. There is not a growing separation. We have a return, in a way, to what the noble Lord, Lord Empey, was engaged in negotiating in the last week of the Good Friday agreement: a practical model of north-south relations rather than one dominated by nationalist solutions of one sort or another—solutions that the noble Lord, Lord Frost, is quite right are to be found in the 2017 EU-UK agreement and in the withdrawal agreement. This is a significant modification, though it is imperfect. In the last debate, the Lord Privy Seal talked about the Prime Minister’s successful trip to Northern Ireland. She said it was clear that the Prime Minister saw Northern Ireland as part of the success he wanted for the UK as a whole. That is the spirit.