Feeney on Friday: Unionists need to realise that when English politicians talk about the ‘union’, they mean Scotland

Leaving aside the relative party strengths shown in the latest LucidTalk poll, the rank order of which hasn’t changed, what is remarkable is the stark difference between what nationalist and unionist voters regard as their most important concerns.

An astonishing 71% of unionist voters (DUP, UUP, TUV) placed commitment to the union as their most pressing issue, whereas only 51% of nationalist voters ranked commitment to Irish reunification highest.

For them, most important was the cost of living (66%), followed by the health service (63%). Incredibly, for unionists, opposing the Protocol/Windsor Framework (45%) was almost as important as concern about the health service (47%).

Unionist priorities are distinctly odd because there’s nothing they or their political representatives can do about them.

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Take opposition to the Windsor Framework. Obviously Conservatives support it since they negotiated it, but one of the few references to the north in the Labour party manifesto says it “is committed to implement the Windsor Framework in good faith”. After all, it was passed by one of the biggest Commons majorities in history.

Do unionists not get the message? What is that message? Complete disregard for unionist opinion, sentiment or concerns if they clash in any way with British interests.

Former Alliance leader John Alderdice tried to give unionists that message last year after the council elections, when the nationalist vote for the first time surpassed the unionist vote.

Alderdice cited “a profound change in the English public’s attitude” to the north since he entered the Lords in 1996. He said there is now “no emotional attachment”.

In March this year he went further and said “the trajectory is a united Ireland” because “contexts change”. He repeated his opinion at the Ireland’s Future event last weekend.

Nowadays when English politicians talk about ‘the union’, they mean the union with Scotland because without Scotland, England would be grievously diminished on the world stage. Without the north there would be no difference whatsoever because, unlike Scotland, the north is not part of Britain.

The evidence is there for all to see in the present election campaign. The north is completely ignored because no British party organises here or looks for votes here.

Not only that. The mainstream media is full of debates with all the party leaders shouting and arguing with and over each other. These debates and interviews with individual leaders and spokespersons include all the main parties in Britain, from Conservative and Labour to SNP and Plaid Cymru.

Needless to say, no party from the north is involved because what’s happening here is a different election about different politics. No TV channel is going to transmit a debate about politics here because they would instantaneously lose their audience.

Given all these self-evident truths, it shows a tragic absence of self-awareness for unionists to cite their commitment to the union as their main concern. On the other hand, is it their most pressing concern because they are aware that Alderdice and others like him are correct and there is no reciprocity to their commitment?

It shows a tragic absence of self-awareness for unionists to cite their commitment to the union as their main concern

If this is so, are unionist voters not also aware that the behaviour of the DUP in the last eight years will do nothing to alter the view of anyone in England, but on the contrary will serve only to further damage the union?

With regards to the other concerns such as the health service and cost of living, it’s futile for candidates here to include proposals in their campaign literature to remedy the deficiencies. The policies of the British party likely to be in government are devised with no regard to this place. They are unalterable by anyone here because local parties are powerless in British politics.

The best recent illustration of that is the imperious attitude of Labour’s prospective proconsul this week when he dismissed out of hand the likelihood of any money for Casement.