Such hardy performers will try out any idea for a laugh. They know at least half their audience will oblige.
But tell that joke to any victim of our murderousness and there will be no laughter. ‘So you have a way of ending the troubles? Get out of here’ as often as not will be the response. Why? Because we have never shared the same destination and so we have never had one to work on together.
But is there a destination we can share? Republicans insist on a United Ireland, Unionists on a United Kingdom. Neither can prevail against the other. Instead, at our cores and despite our grief for our failures, we have stuck resolutely to opposite corners of the same room. Trapped and going nowhere, this means we must recognise and accept the need to turn our politics on its head.
So what kind of arrangement can we make that will let us line up side by side, facing in the same direction, working in harmony on our common interest? Can we have a united island?
Yes, in 3 stages. In stage one we adopt Consumer Choice Democracy for NI. This produces an Intradependent Northern Ireland –Stage 2 - in which we get used to working together for the same objectives, running our own affairs. This produces a United Northern Ireland without which there can be no united anything – and allows us to build an economically united island as Stage 3. Here is how we get under way:
- the UK, RoI and NI governments set up a joint task force to incentivise GB companies needing to operate in the EU to cross the Irish Sea rather than the English Channel
- in NI we designate ourselves as Ulster Irish, Ulster British or Ulster Independent, and have the right to change our designation every year if it suits our pocket;
- we use our tax code to register our choice in line with either the UK tax regime or the Irish regime, and we thereby freely express our identities;
- our taxes are all paid to the NI exchequer in Stormont to be supplemented by Barnett Formula payments from London and similar from Dublin, proportionate to those designating themselves Ulster British or Ulster Irish. Independent voters will pay/receive pro rata rates.
- our benefits are paid likewise;
- these monies become our annual budget – to be spent by those we elect to spend them on the advancement of our economy and for the benefit of our people;
- we elect our politicians according to how they say they will manage our economy, and we vote them in or out on the evidence of their performance – there being no political gain to be had from a sectarian vote.
- Northern Ireland becomes a member of the Commonwealth and joins the EU as a full member in its own right.
Intradependence means making nationalism a non-issue, and our having nothing to fight over except how we make the economy work. At a stroke it removes the threat of one side’s nationalism taking advantage of the other. By concentrating on the economy it obliges us to balance the books.
Prioritising the establishment of Consumer Choice Democracy triggers the creation of an Intradependent united Northern Ireland – which attracts major inward investment, becoming the basis for our strength and prosperity as a united Northern Ireland.
We are so accustomed in NI to living in a society rooted in fear and suspicion that we barely notice it. Fear of one side imposing its will upon the other channels our thoughts, defines our politics and narrows our lives. Consumer Choice Democracy overturns this by removing the threat.
But fear is not the only barrier we have to overcome. Its’ cousin is hatred – which always grows against the thing we fear. And it is clear is that we will not get rid of the hatred until we get rid of the fear. So we have to commit to Consumer Choice Democracy for removing the threat.
Both sides of our community must feel they can express their allegiance freely and be respected for it. That is why we will express it where nobody can object – by where we put our money*.
Without a united Northern Ireland there cannot be either a United Ireland or a United Kingdom. Neither could contain a disunited NI and be called ‘united’? The ‘big lie’ must be exposed.
An agreed way of living within Northern Ireland is necessary first before we can successfully make it fit within any wider relationship, and such an agreed relationship has not shown itself to be compatible within either an Irish or a British constitutional model.
In the same way that Unionists must now recognise that their relationship with the UK has fundamentally changed post Brexit, so Sinn Fein must acknowledge the fundamental disingenuousness of their vision for a United Ireland. Their position seeks the outnumbering of Unionists so they can be overcome, not unity with them. We cannot allow that to happen.
If even 2% of the GB economy transferred to NI in their bid to stay within the EU it would double the size of the NI economy – which would have substantial knock-on benefits for the RoI economy in turn. This would completely transform NI and make us financially independent, no longer relying on handouts but standing on our own two feet for the first time. Such prosperity, only available through a quirk of history if we seize the opportunity, would also transform our politics – and secure a shared future for our children.
Will Unionists, mindful of their need for a future free from the perfidious machinations of English nationalists, persuade Sinn Fein to stop their campaigns for a border poll and the calling of a referendum? Will Republicans back off for fear of creating a disunited Ireland and losing their cherished goal altogether? Can we dare hope for their recognition of a shared future?
If we follow through on this it is not hard to envision the most unlikely of political cries – UNITING UNIONISTS WITH NATIONALISTS, LOYALISTS WITH REPUBLICANS – JOIN THE INTRADEPENDENTS FOR A UNITED NORTHERN IRELAND – ON A UNITED ISLAND.
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