Unionists in Northern Ireland and throughout these islands need to wake up to reality, as do Nationalists of whatever nationality. The union of GB and NI is not a static entity. The union has evolved and changed, and will continue to change.
While the union of the crowns of Scotland and England in 1603 had facilitated the union of the two parliaments in 1707, the new parliamentary entity of GB could have become a republic following the death in 1714 of Queen Anne, the last of the Stuart dynasty to wear the crowns of Scotland and England. (The Jacobite rebellions in 1715 and 1745 against the imported Hanoverian dynasty could thus have been averted). Ironically, Ireland had finally succumbed to English domination under Cromwell during the interregnum (1649-1660) while England and Scotland were separate republics. A monarchy was/is not an essential element of the Union. We could today have been The Republic of GB and NI.
The original concept of a single parliament for the island of GB (from 1707), and subsequent incorporation of the island of Ireland (in 1801), has proved over time to be unsustainable.
Disintegration of the union began in 1921 with devolution to new regional parliaments in Dublin and Belfast, followed in 1998 by devolution via the Belfast/Good-Friday Agreement (GFA) to a new British-Irish Council (BIC), in which the UK government is no more than an equal partner, in effect representing only England, and in 1999 to new regional parliaments in Edinburgh and Cardiff.
There is no longer a United Parliament of GB, and there never was, since 1921, a United Parliament of GB and NI except during short periods of direct rule from Westminster, whatever might remain of a symbolic ‘kingdom’, nominally ‘united’ under one monarch, but nationally felt, in England and Scotland as two kingdoms, and in Ireland as an oppressive conqueror.
The obvious and long overdue next stage, provided for in the institution of the BIC, would be devolution to a new English parliament. The coordinating forum for all parts of these islands should be the BIC, in effect a Council of the Isles. The Westminster forum would be unnecessary and obsolete. Scotland and Wales would have their desired independence from Westminster, as would England, and as the Republic of Ireland (RoI), the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands have at present. Northern Ireland has a mandate in the GFA to choose its own future. The options should be obvious – remain as a member of the BIC or merge with the RoI.
Those entities are members of the BIC, full implementation of which is long overdue.
The peoples of these islands need each other now and in the future. The European Union, of which the RoI is a member, may also disintegrate. Brexit was the start. Covid might hasten the process.
The GFA provides the framework for a new kind of union or confederation of sovereign states and regions cooperating by mutual consent (the BIC).
Are our politicians willing to give us what was agreed? Do they know what was agreed?
Is legal action needed to enforce the Agreement?
Do we need a new trans-islands party dedicated to the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement?
DENNIS GOLDEN
Strabane, Co Tyrone
Economy minister boasts too much
Economy minister Diane Dodds has shown herself to be an excellent minister when it comes to boasting about her achievements (Platform, May 18). But her period in charge of her department has not been as effective as she claims.
Two serious weaknesses have blighted her leadership. The first is that despite all the pressure I have been able to exert, minister Dodds has steadfastly refused to properly address regional economic imbalance. Derry, Strabane, west Belfast and east Belfast consistently record excessively high levels of unemployment, economic inactivity and poverty. The minister has failed to provide any measures that address this crisis.
Indeed, she has even refused to expand the membership of her Economic Advisory Group to include someone from the north-west to advise on the specific needs of the poorest region.
The second weakness has been the excessive reliance on gas as a transitional energy source as we move towards becoming a net zero carbon economy.
To direct continuing financial support into the use of gas, a fossil fuel, at a time when Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland and much of the world are moving to end their use of gas is a serious policy failure. That error has been made worse by the lack of ambition in her plans for transitioning to the green economy and the absence of clear proposals for the adoption of the Green New Deal, which needs to involve a major home energy efficiency retrofitting programme.
While minister Dodds may feel her legacy is positive, the facts tell a different story.
SINÉAD McLAUGHLIN MLA
SDLP, Foyle
Double standards
Describing himself as a proud ‘Dub’ as he returned his Freedom of the City of Dublin award in protest at the inclusion of Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Bob Geldof said he would be a hypocrite to share honours with one who has become at best an accomplice to murder. Mr Geldof said Dublin should not have any truck with Aung San Suu Kyi because she has let Dubliners down by her silence in the face of violence and terror being inflicted on the Rohingya people in Myanmar.
In light of the findings of the inquiry led by Mrs Justice Siobhán Keegan into the Ballymurphy massacre which found that British soldiers unjustifiably shot dead 10 innocent people in the 1971 incident in west Belfast, can we expect Mr Geldof to return his honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, which he shares with General Sir Mike Jackson who was adjutant to the Parachute Regiment in Ballymurphy when the killings took place?
TOM COOPER
Dublin 2
Financial suffering
M McCafferty (May 12) writes about the increase in the price of beer and he names other businesses which have not increased their prices. I can assure him that hairdressers (perhaps not all) have certainly taken advantage of the situation. Do they not realise that their clients also suffered financially during lockdown? My hairdresser increased prices after the first lockdown and again after the latest one. My weekly shop has also increased.
T KELLY
Draperstown, Co Derry
