It’s all a load of tosh. The north does not need a unionist or a Republican Party to prosper. Bin the whole lot off and start again with no religion and no Green/orange divide. Stormont is a parody of a political institution. We need the young voters to ignore both and vote down the middle for real change. The DUP still think it’s the 70s. Sinn Fein are trying to sneak away from the past by electing anyone not associated with the troubles.
The North will be dragged into the future one way or another. Both parties have failed to address the concerns on the doorsteps. Housing, Eduction, Hospital waiting times, Costs of living is hammering so many people, farming industry is on it knees. So I won’t be congratulating any party today as the incompetence and damage caused by these 2 idiots will continue unabated into the future. The north celebrates when the political institution collapses as we get a chance to get on with what is important in our lives…stressing out about Newcastle on Sunday ;)
All you will hear over the next days is tit for twat crap. Fuck em all.
I agree with some, if not all of what you say.
Although as I stated before SF are not the party for me, I don’t see it as them sneaking away from their past.
I think they are no different than any nationalist party on this island in that they were born out of conflict.
If you want to go back 100 years FF and FG were born out of a civil war and effectively were a split in the original SF that picked up arms
in a Rising as they saw a democratic vote on the whole island not carried through by the then British government. Craig saying they’d rather be under German rule than Home rule.
There was a further Democratic vote on the island after the WW1 which also wasn’t followed through as it wasn’t accepted by Unionism, who with the backing of the Tories were armed to the teeth.
However Carson was not in favour of splitting the country and Craig took over and chose to take an unnatural border that favoured a unionist majority.
I won’t defend De Valera’s part in the Catholic church’s role in the new Republic, although I accept the necessity of a penniless state to hand over health and education, but the unionist party in the North were equally borne out of the threat of violence.
I know this would not be a popular view of it from a unionist side but the rise of SF in the north and the paramilitary arm of it was as much a consequence of Unionist management/mismanagement of keeping politics in the north both sectarian and unfair.
However, I totally agree that the way forward is with the young voters not giving a fnck about any of that. Because each side has their own perception of the history of it.
I do feel that we are Democratic down south and have grown up a lot in the past 30 years or so.
We voted overwhelmingly for the GFA and would have seen this as our generation drawing a line under the past and turning a new page for a consensual future.
I believe the two sides of the coin are dealing with this differently up north. Nobody denies what SF’s goal is. They never hide it but in their defence whatever their history they do seem to have signed up to waiting their time and promoting their goal Democratically.
I could be totally wrong and merely seeing this as a Southerner, but it always appears to me that Unionism seems to basically say we’ll support democracy as long as we are in the majority.
This is not 100 years ago. This is not even 30 years ago.
The reason unionism is in the state it is, is their support for Brexit and the Protocol that they got at the second bite of the cherry.
One thing I’ve never understood is that they would rather see the GFA brought down when I always saw it as the one thing protecting their Britishness going forward, but I’m beginning to see now why.
Democracy doesn’t come into it.
They would like to go back to the good old days where they had guaranteed rule and if that means not accepting the protocol they aided in getting signed off then so be it. If they don’t get that fine they won’t do the job they have just been voted in to do. They won’t sit in the Assembly.
How about setting up the Assembly and then sitting down with businesses in NI and addressing the issues.
Come up with something constructive.
Anyway.
Enough from me.
I agree that this just goes round in circles and so am I and I had more or less given that up in here.
I really had thought I’d seen real progress on this island in my lifetime although I never really thought a United Ireland would be something I’d live to see. Still don’t.
I had hoped however, my young lad would grow up in a new era of perhaps duel citizenship or at least choice.
UK and GB don’t fill me with any confidence of a cooperative future.
Then again the world at the moment doesn’t fill me with any such confidence either.
