如果他们了解历届保守党首相 — — 从希斯到撒切尔夫人再到梅杰 — — 都没能解决这个问题、直到1998年受难日协定才解决了这个问题，也会颇有助益。
They might also benefit from knowing that successive Conservative prime ministers, from Edward Heath to Margaret Thatcher to John Major, struggled and failed to resolve the issue before it was put to rest by the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.