What began as a demand to disband the RUC, lock, stock and barrel declined into a campaign to fully implement the Patten Report. Now, even that has been refused and the British Government is imposing its own version of policing on the North of Ireland. In reality, there never was any prospect of things being different. Control of policing is not an optional extra for a ruling power - it is a fundamental necessity.

Moreover, in a region where the very legitimacy of the state has long been questioned by a substantial section of the population, the ruling power will only ever permit cautious, meagre reform. The objective will not be to make policing more accountable and democratic. The purpose instead is to consolidate support for the state by having its one-time adversaries endorse any government’s first line of defence - its police force.

For this very reason, every British Government has ensured that there has been a unitary police service in Northern Ireland since the island was partitioned. The same authority that controls the political Special Branch and the paramilitary DMSUs (District Mobile Support Units) also takes charge of traffic safety, domestic violence incidents and regulation of addictive substances. Unlike some continental countries, it becomes almost impossible therefore to support civil order without simultaneously supporting the state.

There is nothing new in the British Government’s recent approach to policing. They are ever willing to make cosmetic change just so long as the core elements of their device remains in place. For those old enough to recall the early 1970’s, the current manoeuvring with the RUC is all too reminiscent of the abolition of the dreaded "B" Specials and their replacement by the Ulster Defence Regiment. Changes of title, uniform and line-of-command even, yet still the same ethos and practice from those patrolling the streets. Above all else, any new force will remain de facto as a buttress of the state.

The debate (debaclé more likely) surrounding policing under Stormont is, in many ways, the working out of the Good Friday Agreement in microcosm. Basic to the Accord is the acceptance that the essential elements of the status quo will remain in place. Thereafter, details will emerge and develop as a result of a series of contests between the different political groups working inside the "Big House". Due to the fact that unionism is quite sanguine about a return to direct rule - and can therefore afford to blink last in an impasse - the treaty is being adjusted more towards Mr. Trimble’s taste than that of Hume and Adams.

In time these anomalies will have to be resolved. The incongruous situation where political parties hold positions as ministers in the Executive but are unable to endorse the police force will lead to difficulties. Either they must come to terms, officially or otherwise, with the new law enforcement agency or they will be forced to abandon their participation in the administration of the state.

Such decisions will not be easy for the SDLP or Sinn Fein. Evidence to date suggests that they will wrestle with the dilemma for some time but in the end they will make some form of accommodation with the system. That has been the nature of their involvement in the "Process".

Such decisions will not be easy for the SDLP or Sinn Fein. Evidence to date suggests that they will wrestle with the dilemma for some time but in the end they will make some form of accommodation with the system. That has been the nature of their involvement in the "Process".