—and still are—that this House of Commons is tired of the Union and is determined to diminish it. Nothing could underline that more than the fact that in these constitutional arrangements the one thing that would make the Union safe and secure, or at least be an earnest of belief in the Union, is missing—namely, representation in this House. We have repeatedly asked that Northern Ireland should continue to be represented in this House because of the diminution in the devolution of powers, because in the orders all taxation and control over external defence and internal security are to remain in this House. That is emphasised by the fact that the Ministry of Home Affairs is to be abolished. Anyone who suggests that internal security in Northern Ireland will at some time be handed back to the new Assembly is talking through his hat, because the very Ministry concerned is being abolished.

Throughout, this House has steadily resisted the proposition that Northern Ireland shall be fairly represented in it. Despite the fact that the Secretary of State remains and that all the principal powers lie here, this House resists fair representation of Northern Ireland within it.

To what is the House now giving its approval? It is giving its approval to the erection of an edifice designed ultimately to bring about a united Ireland. It seems to me, and will seem to most Unionists, that this is what the House is feeling its way towards. There is no doubt that this is what it would like. The House is, in effect, saying "We are not going to bully or bomb you Ulster-men into an Irish Republic; we are not going to make the change without your consent. But we are going to make it more difficult for you to operate within the Union. We are going to build such an edifice around you that it will become more difficult for you to resist a united Ireland. We have insisted upon Republicans within your very organ of government and said that we would not devolve any powers unless you admitted Republicans into that very organ of government. We have further said that we would not even devolve powers without the consent of the State which we want you to join."

What is left to those who take the Unionist position? In time all the pressures will be there to create a united Ireland. In the words of a man greater than any in this House now, it is a sentence of death with a stay of execution. That is how Unionists see it. That is how I see it. This may be the last time that I put forward the traditional Unionist view in this House. I do so with passion and with feeling because I believe it is the beginning of the end of the Union and the beginning of a united Ireland.