{"id":70,"date":"2010-09-10T10:25:45","date_gmt":"2010-09-10T09:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedissenter.co.uk\/?p=479"},"modified":"2010-09-10T10:25:45","modified_gmt":"2010-09-10T09:25:45","slug":"is-unionism-prepared-for-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/?p=70","title":{"rendered":"Is Unionism Prepared for Change?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The News Letter Union 2021 Series of articles through the summer has been an interesting read.\u00a0 It also provides thedissenter<\/em><\/strong> a useful way to address the second part of post-election review: Part 1<\/a> having looked at relative electoral strengths, historical and current.<\/p>\n

Having looked at the News Letter\u2019s list of questions thedissenter<\/strong><\/em> has reversed the order to start with consideration of what challenges 2011 might hold for Unionists. There is every indication that Sinn Fein is gearing up for another crisis and more talks within the next twelve months \u2013 chip, chip, chip. The big\u00a0question is then \u2018how\u00a0prepared is Unionism for the road ahead\u00a0to 2021 and beyond?\u2019,\u00a0including the challenge of\u00a0starting to prepare for that journey now.<\/p>\n

This is a slightly longer version than appears in the News Letter<\/a>, free from the paper\u2019s 600 word limit.<\/p>\n

\"is-unionism-prepared\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/span>Moving Forward Part 2<\/h2>\n

It is not about whether or not a Sinn Fein First Minster is acceptable. The current political structures, into which both the DUP and UUP have bought, mean that this is a possibility though far from a certainty.<\/p>\n

In his recent News Letter article\u00a0Alex Kane <\/a>rightly outlines the challenge for Unionists should Sinn Fein be the largest party at the next election.\u00a0 While electoral pacts have been discussed widely, alternative strategies have been absent in public discussion.<\/p>\n

There is a widespread acceptance that we have a great deal less than good Government at Stormont.\u00a0 Following on from Hillsborough, we are still waiting for Ritchie and Empey to get back to the Executive on improving process to make Government work. It is most likely that the failure is fundamentally within the structures.\u00a0 In which case, likely solutions are only possible with a complete rethink.<\/p>\n

Stoic acceptance of the institutions as they are is down to a failure of Unionism at the outset to have had a clear agenda for Government \u2013 devolution seems to have been an end in itself. If neither main Unionist Party leader is willing to serve as Deputy First Minister then are they prepared to bring the house down?<\/p>\n

Being \u2018prepared\u2019 would mean having an alternative pathway, and working hard on preparing the ground for such a scenario.\u00a0 Regardless of this scenario playing out in the event of Sinn Fein being the largest party, the growing logjam and catalogue of failure to deliver, may mean a time-out is demanded from the public.\u00a0Hillsborough showed how hopelessly unprepared Unionism is in planning for the future, too willing to deal with the minutiae (badly) and seemingly unable to challenge a tired and empty Republican narrative \u2013 St Andrews before, Belfast before that, and before then\u2026.<\/p>\n

All very well, but what would that prepared pathway be? A plan for Government by voluntary coalition that would provide accountability, stability and mature democratic checks and balances?\u00a0 Fewer Executive Departments for sure, and far fewer than 26 local Councils: unnecessary for a small geographic area of under 2 million people \u2013 3 Councils perhaps, or none at all?<\/p>\n

At a bigger level what would that Government be about?\u00a0 The recent Centre for Social Justice Report, Breakthrough Northern Ireland<\/a>,\u00a0 has shown the challenge in rebuilding society \u2013 all the billions of EU Peace funding shows that money is not the solution.\u00a0 Are our areas of deprivation worse than the worst in Manchester, Liverpool or even parts of London? Are we that special? Troubles aside, economic and social breakdown is a story familiar too elsewhere in the UK with identical themes.<\/p>\n

The corollary of social breakdown is even greater challenge in respect of education, where the selection debate has overshadowed the failings at primary level. If there is social reform, there must also be economic reform.<\/p>\n

The time for the end of the Invest NI life-support machine is coming \u2013 the business sector is as much grounded in a dependency culture as the social sector. Nationalists cannot complain about a significant reduction in Northern Ireland\u2019s\u00a0public sector. If there is to be an all-Islands economy (one of the largest in the world of which we are already an integrated part) then the public sector engagement in the economy has to be reduced to the UK level (even at its current high of 50%) . Perhaps we should aim to be close to Irish Republic\u2019s smaller public sector, otherwise a reduction in corporation tax is pointless and should not even be under consideration.<\/p>\n

Those who are creating wealth in society must be encouraged at the expense of those who profit from public subsidy. Far from NI Water returning to the Department of Regional Development it must be prepared for the private sector.<\/p>\n

It is not necessary for Unionist parties to unite structurally to agree common points on a future for good government.\u00a0 The Unionist electorate is not a single monolithic body. It does not lack choice in Party, rather in leadership and ideas on moving forward. No matter the number of parties, Unionism is currently failed by a lack of strategic and purposeful leadership.\u00a0 There would be a collective electorate groan at the thought of the present Unionist leaderships entering more talks on the future of Northern Ireland given their abject failure to date.<\/p>\n

What is required to 2021 and beyond is coherent vision and a policy driven agenda that sets out what is necessary for a small, open, free and intelligence-led economy making a positive social, cultural and political contribution within the UK. This, far far\u00a0more than (and probably in spite of) political manoeuvering or structural machinations, will\u00a0build and strengthen the Union.<\/p>\n

The News Letter\u2019s Union 2021 Series asks 5 questions from contributors:<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What do <\/strong>you<\/strong> think <\/strong>Northern Ireland\u2019s <\/strong>Union with Great Britain will look like in 2021?<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. \u00a0<\/strong>What would <\/strong>you like it to look like?<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Is unionist unity\u00a0essential for the achievement of your vision?<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. I<\/strong>f so, what does that mean?<\/strong><\/li>\n
  5. C<\/strong>ould you accept a Sinn Fein first minister?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The News Letter Union 2021 Series of articles through the summer has been an interesting read.\u00a0 It also provides thedissenter a useful way to address the second part of post-election review: Part 1 having looked at relative electoral strengths, historical and current. Having looked at the News Letter\u2019s list of questions thedissenter has reversed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}