Let this be the last time the people of Northern Ireland have to vote in a British general election.
As the hapless campaign has unfolded, it has become increasingly clear that what is happening in Great Britain has little or no relevance for people here.
In fact, all Sunak’s July poll has done is to give the bigots an added incentive to roll out the sectarian threats and build their pyres higher.
“All Taigs will be crucified,” ran Friday’s headline reporting abuse aimed at SDLP election workers. Well, at least it’s an advance on “crucifixion’s too good for them”.
Sectarianism at election time comes in all shapes and sizes, from the naked and very public abuse being witnessed daily by people on the campaign trail, to much more subtle decisions taken on the ground by so-called grown-up politicians who are prepared to sacrifice their party’s overall share of the vote by stepping aside to ensure ‘them’uns’ don’t get in.
‘Pacts? What pacts?’ The electorate can see through the demure smiles.
Call me old-fashioned but (and with all due respect to the inestimable Brian Feeney) I believe politicians should let the electorate decide who to vote for. If you’re not prepared to stand and be counted, you’re nothing more than a pressure group.
The needs of this part of the world have always been well down the pecking order when British – or should that be English – politicians are plotting their course. Time and time again, decisions have been taken at Westminster with ramifications which undermine peace and progress here.
To be fair, Scots and Welsh members of this so-called United Kingdom have also been disrespected by English MPs, who dominate parliament by sheer force of numbers.
But neither Scotland nor Wales has had to endure the levels of civil strife suffered by people here. And while there have been gross miscarriages of justice in all corners of the UK, no-one else has had to endure state violence on a scale witnessed in Northern Ireland – though people in mining communities might take issue with that.
I know that even the devil can cite scripture for his own purpose, but it is worth recalling Lord Carson’s verdict on the Tory Party some 100 years ago.
“What a fool I was. I was only a puppet, and so was Ulster, and so was Ireland, in the political game that was to get the Conservative Party into power.”
He went on to say that having supported them, they “kick the ladder away without any concern for the pain, or injury, or mischief, or damage that they do to those who have helped them to gain power”.
There, in a couple of sentences, you have the plight of the north summed up. And it’s more than a fitting epitaph too for the hapless DUP who foolishly aligned with the Tory right and a mendacious Boris Johnson only to be rewarded with a border down the Irish Sea and a couple of seats in the House of Lords.
Indigenous politicians will have to take their share of the blame for the collapsing National Health Service here, for the schools that are letting too many children down, and for the chronically underpowered economy.
But at the root of all our ills is a national legislature focused primarily on the south of England, with a ruling party still wedded to austerity for working people while enriching those who already have wealth, and led by a prime minister so inept he could not beat even Liz Truss for leadership of his party.
At the root of all our ills is a national legislature focused primarily on the south of England, with a ruling party still wedded to austerity for working people while enriching those who already have wealth, and led by a prime minister so inept he could not beat even Liz Truss for leadership of his party
Starmer’s Labour will, I fear, be little different. With the exception of Blair’s role in the peace process – and that was driven primarily by Mo Mowlam - Labour has toed the establishment line, supported suppression and hushed up state wrongdoing. Starmer’s boasts about his role as Director of Public Prosecutions ring hollow with many.
Unionism needs to waken up to the con job being perpetrated on them by politicians wrapped in red, white and blue, but who are wedded solely to the cross of St George (a Turk by the way).
The truth is that they can be British within a reunited Ireland, and with the benefit of being rid of decision-makers in Westminster who care not one bit for these six wee counties in the north-east of Ireland.
