What a week it’s been for political scandals. Sorry, distractions.

First, Sinn Féin went ballistic after DUP leader Arlene Foster told a newspaper that the word she would associate with Michelle O’Neill is “blonde”.

Then it was everyone else’s turn to go ballistic, when a Sinn Féin councillor took to Facebook to brand People Before Profit’s Gerry Carroll a “Brit” because he would be open to taking a seat at Westminster. Sinn Féin, of course, refuse to take theirs.

The real scandal, however, is that these incidents distract from the fact that Northern Ireland is without an Executive at Stormont and is set to go without a local voice at the Brexit negotiation table.

It is a scandal that the Prime Minister, Theresa May avoided a meaningful intervention in the post-Assembly election inter-party talks. As a PM who takes every chance to voice her support for the Union, she casually omitted Northern Ireland from her UK-wide pre-triggering of Article 50 tour.

What’s more, it is a scandal that, on making the briefest of appearances at last week’s Balmoral Show she said she was “personally engaged” in resolving the political deadlock here.

Ahead of next month’s general election, it is hard to view this attendance as anything more than a show of extraordinary Conservative Party complacency as her opponents across the water linger catastrophically low in opinion polls.

On Brexit, Theresa May says no one wants to see a return to the borders of the past; “goodwill on both sides” will resolve issues around the Irish border. How many of the 56% of Northern Irish voters who voted to remain within the European Union in last year’s referendum believe goodwill may be enough?

Plenty might even agree with the assumption shared by SDLP MLA Claire Hanna on last night’s BBC Newsnight programme, that the European Union understands Northern Ireland a lot more than the UK government does.

So, this week’s distractions have been just that: distractions.

Eruptions around hair colour and insults of nationalities (to which DUP MLA Christopher Stalford asked: “What’s wrong with being British?”) won’t resurrect Stormont’s institutions or secure a favourable Brexit deal.

Beyond talk of Brits and blondes, if the only thing we can agree is to disagree then that will be the real scandal.