Editorial: ​Beware of the flurry of polls in Northern Ireland since 2016

Few people who follow politics closely can fail to have noticed the flurry of opinion polls in Northern Ireland that have been published since Brexit.

To unionists, it often seems like such findings are cited by non unionists to show that unionists are not in fact unionist. Consider all the surveys that show that unionists do not think the Irish Sea border the biggest issue in politics in NI. Or polls that show unionist support for a return to Stormont. It is not that such findings are always wrong but that the results in polls depend upon the question, and its context.

A poll that asks if you support NI getting access to the EU single market will attract positive replies from across the community. A poll that asks if you support prioritising NI access to the EU market over NI access to the UK internal market will get a very different set of replies.

Similarly, a poll that asks whether people want a Bill of Rights for NI might get huge amounts of support but one that asks whether people want another layer of intrusive legal bureaucracy, in the name of rights, for a place as small as this province, will show much lower support for that republican pet project.

Now there is a poll that finds that most people support the Windsor Framework. Perhaps there is such support but if unionists think it minimises the Irish Sea border they will like it, if they think it enshrines it they won't.

There is another factor in play. Who, outside of these pages, is criticising the framework or reporting as much on the complaints of hauliers? No wonder people think the framework is not that bad.

The DUP need to continue to have the courage of their convictions. The NI Protocol is a constitutional outrage. The framework was an honest attempt by London to alleviate its worst symptoms, that’s all.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​