Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Moving "back" into the mainstream with the Conservatives?

I was alerted to an article that Owen Paterson, the Conservatives Spokesman on Northern Ireland, had contributed to the Belfast Telegraph last week; unfortunately having had a quick search through the paper’s site, I can’t locate it to link it up, but the gist and a few direct quotes are to be found on the NI Conservatives Site here:

This bit, in particular, I found interesting:
People in Northern Ireland should be part of mainstream UK politics, playing an active part in national parties. On my weekly visits to Northern Ireland people express emphatic views on national issues: the price of fuel, 10p tax row, business taxes, interest rates, over regulation and the Lisbon Treaty. The current political system keeps them locked in the old style politics.

Recent polling by YouGov shows that 54% would welcome more representation by UK wide political parties, 53% would prefer to see a Conservative Government led by David Cameron and only 27% favour a Brown Labour Government. 45% would be Very Likely or Likely to vote Conservative at the next general election if given the opportunity.
After the trauma of the past 30 years, the constitutional arrangements of Northern Ireland are thankfully settled. Now is the time for Northern Ireland to move back into the mainstream of national politics.

Well, yes, the current political system, with the devolved assembly and the resulting sectarian executive carve-up at Stormont, do keep folk here locked in the old-style politics- but that devolved system is supported by Mr Paterson’s party both nationally and locally. People do have views on national issues, but those national issues are swamped again by the petty intercommunal bickering and point-scoring which is a direct result of our current political system. Remove the fight for the Irish Language Act (and a host of other cultural and social issues while you’re at it) out of the sectarian cockpit of Stormont back to Westminster, where the debate and vote will be conduced on grounds other than religious and ethno-nationalist affiliation.

I’d love to see much more representation by the national parties here and if that happens and if people feel they can exert more direct influence over UK-wide politics, then perhaps the Conservatives will start to capitalize on those promising poll figures. But they need, on a Uk-wide basis, to acknowledge the fact that devolution has damaged both the Union on a wider scale and in a more specific Northern Ireland context, consolidated old-style politics, not removed them. They, in all four parts of the United Kingdom, should be leading the fight against the weakening of the Union and the strengthening of the separatist agenda which devolution has inevitably caused.

5 comments:

Aidan said...

"They, in all four parts of the United Kingdom, should be leading the fight against the weakening of the Union and the strengthening of the separatist agenda which devolution has inevitably caused."
Fair point but the Conservatives can hardly try to dictate the debate on separatism with such a weak mandate in Scotland and Wales.
As an Ulster Unionist I am sure that you are not too happy with the trend towards increased devolution but I am not so sure that Scottish and Welsh people see the UK in quite the same way as you do. Indeed I would say that the biggest challenge for Ulster Unionists is to think about what will happen if the UK in its current form no longer exists.

O'Neill said...

Fair point but the Conservatives can hardly try to dictate the debate on separatism with such a weak mandate in Scotland and Wales.

Aidan,

I've argued before that the reason that they have such a weak mandate in both places is that there is little difference now between their and all the other "pro-Union" parties' views on the constitutional future. Their views on most social, cultural and economic issues are also mirrored in at least one of the other parties.
So, why should anyone still vote Conservative in Scotland or Wales?

Like any other large nation, the United Kingdom is not a homogeneous identity with everybody regarding their national identity in exactly the same light-so yes, I'm sure many people in Wales, Scotland and England have a different view of their Britishness than I do.

But I'm also sure that the majority in all four parts of the UK still wish to continue as part of the UK. Our biggest challenge is, therefore, not to prepare for the destruction of our nation, but to make sure the state of affairs I mentioned in the last sentence remains the case and as N.I unionists getting more involved with UK-wide politics.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Aiden. In the main, a fair chunk of Scottish society is passively unionist. But unionism is viewed very diffently in Scotland and I would say only a small proportion are 'staunch' in thier unionism.

This is why an independence referendum, i think, is a touch dodgy as a vast vast majority of independence supporters will turn out. Casual unionists, on the other hand, will come out in such numbers as casual unionists.

Borges said...

Is there any statistical proof that anyone is worse off or have changed their opinion on the nation question under devolution or is this just a feeling?

O'Neill said...

Anonymous,
I agree with you that nationalists are certainly appear more motivated. But I think (hope) that an intensive referendum campaign would be enough to entice also those armchair unionists down to the polling station.

a-r
It's very difficult to say- broken, down tax revenue and spending an wealth per capita figures tend to be very difficult to arrive at. Re opinion- well, we now have Irish, Scottish, Ulster and Welsh nationalists in the devolved "government" and a resurgence of English nationalists...so, whatever else, devolution certainly hasn't defeated Celtic and Anglo nationalism.