It’s thanks to you Mrs Robinson as Tories turn their backs on DUP

IT is a sign of the times — and a tribute to the political deftness of Ireland’s man in London, David Cooney — that the embassy in Britain will hold its first reception at a Conservative party conference this autumn.

In times gone by, such a move would have been unthinkable: Tory equalled unionist equalled the enemy. The cause of Ireland was the cause of Labour, with or without a capital “L”.

But now everyone is united round the Good Friday agreement and Labour is 20 points behind in the polls it makes sense for the state-sponsored Guinness (and champagne, presumably) to flow in Tory Birmingham as well as in Labour-run Manchester where the comrades will gather to knife or bury the hapless Gordon Brown.