Unionism is Bad for Unionists.

Let’s start at the beginning. You. Your earliest memories. Were they your parents views of the world? Unionism or Nationalism? Going to a Church or a Chapel? Listening to a Priest or a Minister? Heading off to a primary school where the same kids you saw on Sunday were sitting beside you?

Those are your beliefs, formed right there. But they are not your beliefs, they are your parents, and their parents and back we go so that even though it is 2021 we are still living in the 18th Century.

Of course things have changed on the surface, literally, the ground was divided in 1921, but the reasons for the division were the same. Sectarian and bigoted. On all sides, from the Irish, British and Ulstermen.

I’ll not delve into the depths of the Orange Card. That one of the main reasons the Unionists determination to remain in the UK was the economic benefit for the business classes. There was a real fear of being in a country that would be dominated by the Catholic Church, and followers of that version of Christianity, which proved to be the case.

Partition resulted in each part of Ireland being ruled by a majority of one religious grouping, and in the North the Unionists were given their selected 6 counties to protect their electoral dominance (while the other three counties of Ulster got their wish too, to join the Republic of Ireland).

For 50 years it panned out well if you were a Unionist. It was simplistic beyond belief. There was one party that got into government every election, the Ulster Unionists. No DUP, no nationalists, just that one party. Reflecting how the state was run, if you were a unionist you were in. In a job, in politics, in the ascendency. Meanwhile the minority were gerrymandered out of any political power, even in local councils, with the result that they saw that democracy with a first past the post system was not a democracy at all. The Civil Rights movement, encouraged by events in the United States, demanded a level playing field. And that led to the rise of the hard line DUP and the total breakdown of normal society with 30 years of violence.

And that has been written about and talked about so much that I will leave it on this occasion.

But what has happened since is that we have seen the decline in unionism, for many reasons, so they need to have a good hard look at what is good for them.

I am going to make a huge assumption here, based on the last 150 years of the world economy. People want to be better off. They want new stuff, a nice car, a better house, a big TV, a holiday or two, some cash in their pockets, to be able to support their families, and to do it by having a good job. They want to be healthy, and to be well educated. They want to go for a walk and visit places, and buy an ice cream. It’s not that complicated, and for the 50 years of Unionist ascendency, there was an argument to be made that they were getting all that. Jobs in the Yard, Mackies, the man made fibres industry, banks for the middle classes etc. But it is not working any more. It’s a broken idea and will not bring prosperity.

Why?

Because we are stuck in a market that is simply to small. The North of Ireland and Northern Ireland after partition was a very prosperous place for Unionists. Being part of the British Empire and that market was a big part of it. When that declined after WW2, the economy shrank, and shrank again. Add in the Troubles and fewer and fewer decision makers saw Northern Ireland as an attractive place to do business, for multiple reasons.

Unionists talk about their culture, and that is most readily visible in the Orange Order, the celebration of the Battle of the Boyne (1690) and all the associated parades and events. The Orange Order has a constitution that enshrines sectarianism. It celebrates the religious privileges that accrued when William of Orange defeated James the Second. Religious wars were entangled with Euro politics in the 17th and 18th Century. It is now the 21st. So is that culture or is it a sense of superiority? It is the same cultural and political state that the white population of the United States enjoyed, when it was acceptable to be segregationist and racist.

Unionists don’t really want to be 2021 British, they want to be 1950s British, pre 1968 British, pre multi-cultural British, Stormont British. They want the Britishness that let them rule Northern Ireland without a glance at the nationalist population or the South of Ireland. They want the Britishness that allowed the Orange Order to ensure that the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland had to be a member of their organisation.

In 2021 the Unionists dream of a past when they could shut down swings in public parks, when they could discriminate without a by your leave. When people like my father and his friends could use bigoted language knowing that there would be no dissent because they were in company that was Protestant. Where people who met and fell in love with people from the Catholic religion would have to leave the country to get married, or face a lifetime of abuse and sneering.

The Northern Ireland that the Unionists want to return to did not exist. It was a fantasy created by having a majority. Almost 40% of the people who lived in truncated Ulster (Paisley used to confuse the real Ulster with 6 county Northern Ireland, when he claimed loudly and often that Ulster Says No, he was mistaken, Ulster didn’t have a say,) did not see the Northern Ireland of Unionist Rule as a safe home. For them the Northern Ireland of the 1950s was a place that excluded them from politics, from housing, from professions and jobs, from golf clubs, and areas to live.

But that imaginary Northern Ireland is not coming back. That is a bygone era now only represented by black and white tv shows, set mainly in the US. Yet it still drives the politics of Unionism. In 1968 it was the attempt to have a better relationship with the South that led to the demise of Terence O’Neill and the rise of the Paisleyite right. In 2021 the same reaction is evident. The recent launch of a Dublin Belfast corridor has been met with the same resistance. Unionists damaging their own prospects for prosperity, because they will not countenance having a relationship with our land bordered neighbour. They will put up barriers to enlarging our economy, that would benefit all of the people of N Ireland. They will do themselves damage to ensure that the Nationalist does not get equality. They will actually put their position in the UK at risk to avoid any levelling up of the people in Northern Ireland.

Not one attempt to encourage the nationalist population to put a United Ireland on hold while we spend a bit of time improving the lot of all for a while. Not one attempt to build on their falling voter numbers by making this a place that everyone can feel happy. Where we can discuss and debate the future prosperity like people who are looking forward not back to the self satisfied old days. Not one olive branch to show willing to be friends with our neighbour and work together so that we all can have a larger market. Not one little bit of understanding that the Protestant Working Class could benefit not from flying flags and protesting a protocol, but from having new jobs in businesses that currently set up in Dublin but could see Belfast as an opportunity too, if only we worked together.

Meanwhile the growth of Nationalism has changed the balance of power in Northern Ireland. Unionists have no real power at all, anywhere. As shown recently they are battered about by the UK government as it sees fit, told lies, encouraged to support policies that are actually detrimental to our prosperity, and held to ransom by the very creed that they hold so dear, Unionism. That love of being British is used to control them at every step, and there is nothing to do about it. No Conservative or Labour votes, no seats in the Government (even recently when the DUP held the balance of power in the Theresa May government there was no attempt to woo them with a Cabinet position,) no support from anywhere except when it suits one of the two big players to embarrass the other (the attacks on Corbyn).

As this has happened our neighbours in the South have moved as only an independent country can, from being hidebound by the Catholic Church and the stultifying nature of that organisation, to breaking completely free and becoming one of the most forward thinking countries in Europe. An economy that is light on its feet, nimble to change and growing again after the collapse of 2008-13. Huge levels of investment from the American IT companies, employing tens of thousands of people. Meanwhile in NI, our prosperity is in the hands of Westminster and their mood of the moment. The people of NI have no power over the tax and spend of the country, the bits that make a government real.

The rest of the United Kingdom is getting mightily tired of less than 2 million people wagging the dog. And so they are showing the Unionists the reality that they have no real political power. It was flagged up in 1985 and the Anglo Irish Agreement, but most recently with the Protocol. Boris Johnson comes over, pats them on the head, tells then what they want to hear, then returns to London and does exactly the opposite. Why? Because he can. With no comeback from the Tories. There are no votes to be won in or about Northern Ireland. The Brexiteers were quite open about trading NI for the Brexit they wanted. The Protocol is that in fact.

And the solution is simple. There are a lot of economists out there, so there are a lot of theories, but there is one simple economic fact, a bigger market means more business. And a bigger market is simply more people.

So while the unionist politicians are now claiming that they are disenfranchised, ignored and feeling excluded, they should ask themselves why? From what? When have they tried to make friends. Like the person at the party who goes into the room in a mood and waits for people to come and see how they are, only to be left there, alone, the Unionist needs to wake up , see that there is a party going on, and they would be openly welcomed if only they would accept the invitation.

So what should they do? Look at the last 100 years. There have been wars between Germany and the Allies, Japan and the USA, the US and Vietnam and many more. All of them are now reconciled and are working together. Because of the economics. Unionists will not make any attempt to reconcile with our neighbours, our fellow islanders, people who represent the aspirational nationalism of nearly 50% of our population. They will not put aside their unwarranted fears to improve the lives of the people they represent. The use those fears to make things worse!

It is time to change. It does not take much imagination to see what would happen if rather than creating false issues, (currently that the Irish Government was responsible for the Northern Ireland Protocol, which was in fact negotiated by the British government and the EU) and a new, creative, imaginative dynamic was developed. If the hand of friendship was offered, genuinely. Once the shock had worn off, the image of Northern Ireland would change for the better. The constitutional position would be parked as it is not changing for many years anyway. The opportunities would flood in, not only because of the practical benefits of being in both the EU and UK, but because we would be seen as a place to do business, not a provincial backwater determined to create problems rather than find solutions. There would be a growth in prosperity, for everyone. All of us. We could get our share of the world wide love of the Irish, and tap into rather than alienate the huge financial power of Irish America. We could be seen as the friendly people we are when politics and religion are removed. We could be seen as modern!

The NI Business Facebook Group has 30,000 members. Many are small businesses, dotted around the place, looking for customers for their products and services, from art to health and well being, food and drink to garden offices and many more. All are working within the physical and mental limitations of our market. The border is in their heads, and in the politics of the country, but not on the ground. We are in a unique position to take advantage of being in and out of both the EU and UK.

It is not time for a United Ireland or a border poll, or to remain in the UK, or join a United Ireland, it is time to stop putting that in the way of progress towards prosperity. To put the well being of the people above the flag they fly, the religion they were brought up in and the leaders that take them nowhere.

Reference: The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee

Fantasyland by Kurt Andersen