Northern Ireland

gordondaviesmoustache said:
I think it's a legitimate question to raise at this point. I believe the way I've couched the questions suggests I'm still undecided on the point, but if I'm being entirely honest I don't feel the same political connection with Northern Ireland as I do with Wales and Scotland. This is principally because their politics are so alien to my outlook on life. It's certainly not, as you suggest, anything to do with a billion quid here or there, but rather that the politicians who now represent the people of the province, whose social views are profoundly out of sync with mine and anyone I associate with (Tory or Labour), are holding the whip hand over our political decision making. For me, that has accentuated how unconnected people in Northern Ireland are politically with the rest of the UK. It's not just the Unionists btw, Sinn Fein's engagement is even less pronounced. I also think the direction of travel their politics has moved in the last decade or so, with the more moderate SDLP and Ulster Unionists becoming largely irrelevant, has fortified that view in me.

I should add that I like the people of Northern Ireland very much. Whenever I have visited, I have always found them to be unfailingly friendly and hospitable.

I believe that given the amount of financial support England in particular provides to the province, the recent turn of events, and the power those ten MPs (with social views the vast majority on the 'mainland' would find abhorrent) now hold over those on the 'mainland', people are entitled to question the nature of the relationship moving forward.

Are you suggesting they are not?
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I think I agree with this(!) Similarly I'm not convinced we should be keeping hold of any dependencies either. Not sure how 'British' you can be if you have always lived in Gibraltar, the North and South Atlantic or the Caribbean. If those 250,000 in the dependencies want to be British, then they should move to Blighty and I feel the same with NI. A United Ireland would surely be enticing for many currently living in GB to seek their fame and fortune over there, you would imagine.
Unless this 'being British' thing is only about the cash.....
 
Taxi said:
Because they are our countymen.
An intrinsic part of who we all are.

I have no objection to the dup or any payments to promote this deal.
They are British and that will do for me.
Northern ireland is British and a pleasure to do business.
Click to expand...


Does it not bother you then that the DUP have being denying our fellow countrymen and women equal rights? 70% of our fellow Brits in NI favour same sex marriage and yet the DUP have undemocratically vetoed any change in law using mechanisms designed to protect the power sharing agreement?

Does it bother you that Arlene Foster pissed £490m of her fellow British taxpayers' money up the wall with her cash for ash scheme? Does it bother your that even though they don't actually believe in climate change, they set up a flawed renewable energy incentive, which individuals with direct connections to DUP and Free Presbyterian Church financially benefitted from?

I have no problem with investment in NI (though this is clearly disproportionate and other parts of the country will suffer as a result) and I have no problem with working with our fellow citizens in NI. These people however are not good for NI and are not good for the country as a whole. This deal is not about welcoming and negotiating with a wider part of the UK and there was no will to work with them whatsoever before Theresa May needed them to keep herself power. This isn't about what's good for the UK or NI. It's about what's good for our PM and history will not be kind to her.
 
gordondaviesmoustache said:
I think it's a legitimate question to raise at this point. I believe the way I've couched the questions suggests I'm still undecided on the point, but if I'm being entirely honest I don't feel the same political connection with Northern Ireland as I do with Wales and Scotland. This is principally because their politics are so alien to my outlook on life. It's certainly not, as you suggest, anything to do with a billion quid here or there, but rather that the politicians who now represent the people of the province, whose social views are profoundly out of sync with mine and anyone I associate with (Tory or Labour), are holding the whip hand over our political decision making. For me, that has accentuated how unconnected people in Northern Ireland are politically with the rest of the UK. It's not just the Unionists btw, Sinn Fein's engagement is even less pronounced. I also think the direction of travel their politics has moved in the last decade or so, with the more moderate SDLP and Ulster Unionists becoming largely irrelevant, has fortified that view in me.

I should add that I like the people of Northern Ireland very much. Whenever I have visited, I have always found them to be unfailingly friendly and hospitable.

I believe that given the amount of financial support England in particular provides to the province, the recent turn of events, and the power those ten MPs (with social views the vast majority on the 'mainland' would find abhorrent) now hold over those on the 'mainland', people are entitled to question the nature of the relationship moving forward.

Are you suggesting they are not?
Click to expand...
I am suggesting that the fact the tories enter a grubby pact with the DUP is not a reason to question Northern Ireland's place in the U.K. The DUP is not the only party in the U.K. Whose views I find abhorrent. UKIP, the SNP, in particular. That hasn't stopped both those parties being particularly influential in our political direction in the last few years. It's democracy in all its glory, we might not like some of the outcomes of it but I don't believe it's valid to question NI's place in the UK on the back of this.
 
See the Daily Mirror headlines has branded them "nutcases" i suggest the editorial team of this rag take a good look around the war cemeteries of Europe from WW1 and WW2 and see how many Northern Irish gave their lives for this country, Paddy Mayne one of the founders of the SAS and one of the British army's most decorated soldiers was an Ulsterman and a true Brit
 
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