Saturday, September 11, 2010

Assenting with the Dissenter

The Dissenter is the latest blogger to contribute to The Newsletter's Union 2021 series:
The time for the end of the Invest NI life-support machine is coming.
Nationalists cannot complain.

If there is to be an all-island economy (one of the largest in the world of which we are already an integrated part) then the public sector has to be reduced to the UK level.

Perhaps we should aim to be close to the Irish Republic's public sector of well under 40 per cent of GDP, otherwise a reduction in corporation tax is pointless.
Yes; the only quibble I'd have with his analysis is that we are not going to have a choice regarding the reduction of public sector. It's how we take advantage of the opportunities this situation will bring about which will be all-important for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and by extension, the Union.

I've enjoyed the series as a whole but it's interesting for me that it has been people like Owen Polley, Geoff McGimpsey and Lee Reynolds, Unionist bloggers who (in contrast to the politicians) have been able to step outside the comfort-zone and put a bit of lateral thinking towards the question asked. Maybe not that surprising really: there's not much motivation for politicians working (and doing quite well out of) the present system to attempt to change it

2 comments:

thedissenter said...

Would not disagree with your quibble. Have another piece in process that should develop on your point. Hope if nothing else to have provoked some thoughts on the scale of challenge ahead.

O'Neill said...

I think it did; there's a growing sense of realism (amongst the Unionists reps anyway) about what will need to be done re the cuts. It's just moving them onto the next step to make them see the potential positives.