Defined not merely as respecting the popular will there, but as campaigning there is support of the Union, the Unionist position in relation to Northern Ireland is marginal to mainland British politics.
Purely as a matter of fact, no one who held it, and it can only be held by in some way acting on it, would ever be regarded as anything other than a fringe figure in any of the Conservative Party, the Labour Party, or the Liberal Democrats.
Whereas the British Government and all three of those parties campaigned vigorously against Scottish independence, the line from all four on Northern Ireland has always been, "It's up to them, and we wouldn't interfere."
A border poll may well be on its way. With the British Government officially indifferent. With all three parties of the same view. With highly prominent Labour figures, at least, campaigning on the Nationalist side.
But with only professional eccentrics, mostly but not exclusively Conservatives, making the trip over from Westminster to campaign for the Union.
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