But it does make the point that many people have a little frontier within their minds, built in to their political perspective.The idea of political structures that might include people such as Sinn Fein and the IRA, and violent loyalists, was not to fully take root until the 1990s. Yet even in 1972, when almost 500 people died, Mr Heath was prepared to sanction talks with the IRA, the cabinet papers disclosing a senior official’s view that Gerry Adams undoubtedly desired “a permanent end to violence”.The IRA demands of the time for British withdrawal could not be met by the Heath government or indeed any subsequent administration. In the 30 intervening years, however, most elements have lowered their sights, which made possible the emergence of the peace process. One of the foundations of this process is that segregation, in terms of both political tradition and where people live, is an unfortunate but inescapable fact of life.Thus politicians in the Belfast Assembly must, as almost their first act after election, state whether they are Unionist or nationalist. Many do not like this, but it is sadly accepted that it is best to acknowledge the existence of such a deeply divided society.The central question for the new year is whether that Assembly, which is presently suspended, can be resurrected in the wake of a new deal in which the IRA winds up most or all of its more unsavoury activities. To that end, intensive negotiations are expected in February.As things hot up, these will doubtless be described as a crisis, yet it is instructive to compare what is at stake now with what Mr Heath faced in 1972. The 500 deaths of that year compare to a dozen last year: the IRA killed 235 people in 1972, but just two last year, while the loyalist death toll fell from 121 to 8.Last year’s events seem almost petty in comparison to 1972’s convulsions.

The Assembly was suspended, yet nobody feared, as Mr Heath did 30 years earlier, that “complete anarchy” might result. Instead, the sense is that there is a good chance of the Assembly being revived. In its short lifetime its politicians showed little sign of developing warm friendships, but they give the impression of believing it provided a level playing-field.Partition may still exist in men’s minds, and life in Northern Ireland will, in all likelihood, continue to be punctuated by acts of violence. Yet the sense that events could spin out of control has just about disappeared. More drama certainly lies ahead, but the fear of anarchy seems to have gone.. When the results came in yesterday for the Today programme’s poll to find out whom the British public wanted out of the country and whom they would welcome as a new citizen, it came as rather a shock to find that the winner and loser were both women.

After all, if you had dropped by from another planet and looked over the reviews of the year that fell out of all the newspapers last weekend, you would think that nine in 10 of the inhabitants of Earth spent their time shooting guns or chasing balls.There are so few women who get to be featured in those summaries of our public culture that the only females who appeared with any regularity were either dead (the Queen Mother) or wearing a bikini (Gisele Bundchen). But when the Today poll closed yesterday, it was Aung San Suu Kyi who had been chosen as a potential British citizen, and Cherie Booth who had been asked to leave.This is the way we tend to see prominent women; as perfectly wonderful or as absolutely vicious. It has to be said that the latter view tends to dominate the British media. Indeed, if Aung San Suu Kyi were to take up the putative offer of British citizenship, it probably wouldn’t be long before even this great heroine were found to have feet of clay.