EU officials may have a different perspective on the DUP deciding to call off its own boycott, but this week’s news has the potential to bring enormous benefits to the North. Political stability is sure to have an economic dividend, for instance, after the uncertainty and indecision of the last couple of years.

Future historians may find it difficult to explain the chaos of this recent period, other than to point to the self-inflicted wound of Brexit. 

Even as recent opinion polls in Britain point to growing public awareness of the terrible mistake of Brexit, those living in the North have had to deal with the fallout from that electoral decision every day of the last two years. Those future historians are unlikely to be kind when judging those who championed Brexit but could not implement it.

One caveat regarding the DUP’s return to Stormont relates to the private meeting of the party on Monday evening. It is alleged that a senior party member leaked the matters being discussed to loyalist Jamie Bryson while wearing a wire or listening device. This is hardly indicative of party discipline and does not bode well for the DUP’s performance in Stormont.

In the Republic, it is 40 years since electronic surveillance was a hot-button political issue, from the phone-tapping of journalists Geraldine Kennedy and Bruce Arnold to finance minister Ray MacSharry taping party colleague Martin O’Donoghue.

It is to be hoped that politicians in Northern Ireland can instead work together for a united cause, namely the electorate.

Shifting blame on to AI

An extraordinary story emerged from Australia in recent days, with a TV station apologising to a politician for editing a photograph to enlarge her breasts and expose her midriff.

Nine News Melbourne boss Hugh Nailon apologised “unreservedly” for the alteration of a picture of MP Georgie Purcell, who stated, “what has happened to me in the past 24 hours is just something that would never, ever happen to a male politician”.

Purcell is correct, and the altered picture is certainly indicative of a toxic environment in sore need of reform.

However, the story became even more complicated when the TV station sought to avoid the blame by suggesting that automation by Photoshop was responsible for the change, in effect blaming artificial intelligence (AI).

This was swiftly contradicted by Photoshop, which stated plainly that any changes would have required human intervention and approval. 

Nine News Melbourne may have offered the first recorded sighting of “it was the AI’s fault” as an excuse, however. The TV station’s crass, sexist move was bad enough, but it was compounded by trying to sidestep responsibility even as it apologised.

To make matters even worse, it has provided a ready-made excuse to miscreants everywhere. Expect plenty of others to try to shift the blame for their actions to AI in the near future.