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.