The Spectator’s Notes | 12 April 2018

The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), which celebrates its 20th anniversary this week, is not a peace, but a truce. This does not mean that it has no value. Most people in Northern Ireland wish to abide by its terms; it has helped them get on with normal life. But it does mean that difference, rather than being gradually dissolved, is institutionalised. You almost have to sign up to one side or the other. A friend sends me the diversity form of the Northern Ireland civil service which, as a candidate for the service, you must fill in. Unlike some such forms, it offers no ‘prefer not to say’ option. Each candidate must declare whether he or she has ‘a Protestant community background’ or a ‘Roman Catholic’ one or neither. This is done in the name of equal opportunities monitoring. But its effect is to define and manage Northern Ireland by its community division. The Agreement is, as the shadow trade secretary Barry Gardiner says, a ‘shibboleth’, in the exact sense of that word — a way of distinguishing between two sides.