AS expected, MLAs voted on Tuesday to oppose the outrageous plan by the British Government to end Troubles-related prosecutions.
 
The debate – called by the SDLP – may have been a formality in terms of the outcome, but it was important that the Assembly place formally on record its opposition to the British binning of prior agreements and its intention unilaterally to impose a solution on the vexed issue of legacy.
 
The vote will not, of course, make a ha’porth of difference to a radical Tory cabal that is determined to sweep aside any opposition to its regressive and anti-democratic agenda – the agenda in this case being wiping the slate clean for ‘Our Boys’.

Fixation with the military has always been one of the five key indicators of right-wing extremism in governments all over the world, and this salute to Soldier F and his colleagues is of a piece with sending gunboats to meet French fishermen and threatening war over Gibraltar.

While it is good to have all the parties here united in opposition in Stormont this week to the callous legacy plan...that opposition will only be effective if it is expressed repeatedly and noisily outside the political chamber and in places where the British Government doesn’t want it to be heard.
 

With an 80-seat majority, Boris Johnson et al can see the plan through parliament without hindrance, but there’s a significant difference with regards to this proto-fascist human rights outrage. Show unionists a uniform and a union jack and they’re all in. Indeed, in the early days when an amnesty was mooted it was greeted enthusiastically and warmly.

But it was always the case that without changing the very framework of the British system of jurisprudence, an amnesty for British soldiers alone was never going to come about. And  if they had fondly imagined that this No.10 would pull up short of throwing IRA victims under the bus – even English IRA victims – their failure to learn lessons about Johnson and his followers is more complete than we imagined.
 
And so a British Government is proceeding with a plan to give its soldiers a get-out-of-jail-free card without the enthusiastic endorsement of the DUP and UUP.

Once upon a time, that would have proved a problem for a British PM, back in an era when Tory MPs actually did consider themselves members of the Conservative and Unionist Party. But while  soft sympathy for the unionist cause has not disappeared from the Tory ranks, the will to do something to give them a dig-out is vanishing fast, if not already gone.

We saw that when the Protocol was signed with nary a care about what it meant for the place of loyal Ulster in the UK.
 
So while it is good to have all the parties here united in opposition in Stormont this week to the callous legacy plan outlined so glibly by Secretary of State Brandon Lewis, that opposition will only be effective if it is expressed repeatedly and noisily outside the political chamber and in places where the British Government doesn’t want it to be heard. And that means getting Washington to sign up to this reluctant coalition. We have already seen how exquisitely sensitive this Tory regime – a hostage to Brexit – is to American pressure.

If the fight is to be won, it will be won on a foreign field.