Alex Kane - Damaging the cause they claim to promote

Flag protesters are making a key error: they are now damaging the cause and brand they seek to promote. Get off the streets and into talks.
— Alex.Kane (@AlexKane221b) December 21, 2012

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Alex Kane - "UUP to the right of TUV"

Finished cover to cover read of UUP document. Puts them well to the right of TUV. I've no idea what votes they're now chasing.
— Alex.Kane (@AlexKane221b) March 12, 2014

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A protestant party for a protestant people

In a previous post here ('A catholic party for a catholic people') we covered Patrick Murphy's critique of Sinn Fein in The Irish News - a party that operates to the exclusion of the protestant people of Northern Ireland. The DUP are the opposite side of the same medieval coin. As Alex Kane said:

"The DUP (along with the UUP) regards its primary task as the protection, promotion and preservation of unionist interests. Put bluntly, that means doing everything possible to undermine the republican, united-Ireland agenda. Meanwhile, Sinn Fein (with the SDLP) sees its primary task as continuing to erase, or at least blur, the signs, symbols, touchstones and benchmarks which sharply define Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom."

And as we said in the previous post here, the Assembly cannot stand if parties cannot come to realize that they owe a duty and responsibility to those people who are perceived to be on the other side.

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The two worlds of Northern Ireland, Ctd

It's self-evident that the political class in Northern Ireland is entirely out of step with a people rapidly advancing in civilisation. As Mick Fealty said:

"The irony is that in general terms, sectarianism is on the slide, and mixed marriages are up and the wider population is beginning to adopt a more open view of how the world works than many of their most senior politicians." 

Politicians stand as fountainheads for the most extreme: talking singularly about the past, parades and victims. Yet, as Brian Rowan said of the parading stalemate of summer 2013, "The standoff is in one part of Belfast, and here and everywhere else, people have other worries - food, bills, jobs, education."

The effect of this cause is apathy and indifference which only sustains the bogus cause. A negative and hideous feedback loop. Taking a line from Alex Kane, moderate unionism and nationalism has been replaced with opt-out-couldn't-care-less-about-the-whole-thing-anymore unionism and nationalism. We need to break and replace the negative with a virtuous feedback loop.

This requires a two strand remedy and the dismantling of the older order. Northern Ireland needs a new generation of journalists and new politicians.

A New Generation of Journalists

Micheál Martin leader of Fianna Fáil said: "Fundamentally, a public discourse once solely focused on conflict has not evolved a new approach. There are only a handful of journalists who pay any attention to the wider cultural, social and economic dimensions of relations within Northern Ireland and between North and South."

A New Generation of Politicians

Alex Kane said: "Northern Ireland needs a new political generation, a new agenda and new political parties. It needs people who will work together to make Northern Ireland a success. It needs a generation of politicians who will refuse to accept that stalemate, mutual veto and same-old, same-old elections are the best we can hope for."

Previous posts on "The Two Worlds of Northern Ireland" series here, here, here, here, here and here.

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If Stormont politicians act like children then people on the street will act like children

Barton Creeth (@bartoncreeth) wrote in an article for the Queen's blog Compromise after Conflict here:

"The patterns of conversation and conflict management modeled by our political leaders matter because they filter through to all levels of society. How our politicians treat each other up in the Assembly and on television directly impacts those in interface areas, as these patterns manifest themselves in the relationships between our differing communities."

Alex Kane said something to the same effect: "The divisions at executive level mirror the divisions at street level." He added: "This isn't a peace process as such, but rather the management of stalemate. Politicians may lob words rather than bricks but the damage is similar." Barton Creeth mooted a solution: "Good relationships, at all levels of society, are the lynchpin of political stability."

Northern Ireland needs responsible, imaginative, courageous and transformative leadership, not perfunctory and tokenistic managerialism. As was written on the blog previously here, politicians needs to behave as the rest of civil society is expected to. Balanced. Well-tempered. Courteous. Not capricious, mean and wilful as so often is the case. Obama said in his inaugural speech that "the time has come to set aside childish things." Northern Ireland needs the same. Northern Ireland politicians need to set the example.

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#GenYNI - Where is the Post-Conflict generation?

If we are to escape the shackles of our past we need new voices and parties. Where are they? Where is the post-conflict generation?
— Alex.Kane (@AlexKane221b) September 25, 2013

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