Creating a united Northern Ireland

@Irish_Gaels @brianjohnspencr @EamonnMallie Why not strive for a united NI first?
— Les Clarke (@oulclanker) October 20, 2013

@andrewgdotcom @brianjohnspencr @oulclanker @Irish_Gaels @EamonnMallie Yes, I say it too! Indeed, a United NI is a pre-requisite.
— Ian James Parsley (@ianjamesparsley) October 20, 2013

@ianjamesparsley @brianjohnspencr @oulclanker @Irish_Gaels @EamonnMallie pre requisite for progress of any kind. That's why we have none.
— Andrew Gallagher (@andrewgdotcom) October 20, 2013

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Creating a united Northern Ireland, Ctd

Whether you're a unionist or a nationalist, we need a united Northern Ireland. A people united by a shared sense of purpose. United by mutual respect, interest and regard. United by the shared goal of creating a stable and properous country. United by the desire to create a warm, open and plural society where people want to come, start a business and raise a family. United by a sense of a shared identity. As Roger Scruton said on his recent series 'Of the People, By the People' for Radio 4:

"There has to be a first-person plural we if the many are to stay together, accepting each others opinions and desires regardless of disagreements."

Roger Scruton then explained why mutual interest and respect are so critical to creating a stable society:

"People have to take their neighbours seriously, as fellow citizens with an equal claim to protection. They do this because they see themselves as living together in a shared home.
The history of the world is proof of this. Wherever people identify themselves in ways that are not shared by their neighbours then the date falls apart at the first serious blow. Yugoslavia, Syria, Nigeria and Lebanon."

Politicians in Northern Ireland need to create a system that will transcend loyalties and give a first-person plural, not a sectarian system of them and us. Without mutual interest, respect and regard, trust, generosity and cooperation cannot exist. We need to set aside sectarian and partisan interests in order to do what is right and in the long term welfare of the country. As economist Paul Collier said on Radio 4's Start the Week of Monday 21 October 2013:

"The genius of modern society, successfully societies is building mutual regard amongst people who don't know each other."

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It's not acceptabe outside Stormont, so why should politicians be able to get away with such childish behaviour?

John Cunningham speaking at the launch of efforts to devolved corporation tax to NI.

John Cunningham of the Camlin Group said that, "if [Stormont] were a business they would be bankrupt." He further said of Northern Ireland politics:

"It’s like watching children argue, arguing at school. What relevance does it have? Why don’t they put it all behind and really look and address the problems that we’re facing... They’re only going to keep us in the past. They’re not going to keep our young people at home. They’re not going to put prosperity into the Province."

For John Cunningham the proper way is all about looking forward and the future. He said, "If this place is to survive and prosper it needs to look at things in a new way." He also said that any institution which is locked in the past is irrelevant. Jeffrey Peel wholly agreed. He said that, "Cunningham’s frustration with the nonsensical, circular squabbles of tribal politicians is absolutely on the nail, of course.

If we consider for a moment what is accepted of civil society, the behaviour of Stormont politicians is neither justifiable or tolerable. If we are to create a shared country we need diplomatic statesmen. The basic premise of democratic society is that politicians will necessarily have to work and govern alongside men and women they don't see eye to eye with. Democracy therefore requires open and workmanly relations. Politicians who can actually talk and show common courtesy and decency to other lawmakers. Politicians who can compromise and make arrangements. It's not OK for our politicians to be uncompromising, intransigent, belligerent, indignant and obstructionist.

Why does everything have to be made personal?

Students at college and university would never get away with rude and incivil behaviour. People in business would never get away with it. Students and workers have to pass rigorous character and personal assessments and stand by a strict code of social norms if they want to move up in their career. The highest standards of conduct are expected and nothing less is accepted.

The kind of incivility, childishness and babyishness that characterises Stormont would never be accepted anywhere else, so why should it be OK for Stormont politicians to behave like children? Not only does this mean bad government, but it also alienates the normal, functioning sections of society who see no relevancy in the political forum. As David Trimble said, "The 'Garden Centre Prods' are appalled by the amateurish nature of our present devolution." The same applies to Catholic no doubt. Not that religion matters.

The most functional people in society don't vote which, as Mick Fealty said, is "as good as an approval, albeit a lukewarm one." And so the negative feedback loop continues. The congress of clowns sustains itself by its very childishness.

We need politicians who don't make everything personal and who don't forever live in the past but who care about the present and who, against a backdrop of rising youth unemployment, healthcare uncertainty and a failing economy, feel the fierce urgency of the now.

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The two worlds of Northern Ireland, Ctd

Northern Ireland is simultaneously one of the most progressive and regressive places on the planet. Think Leah Totton (@DrLeahTotton), Hannah Nelson, James McCullagh (@JamesMc_Cullagh), Maria Doran (@Doran_Maria), Craig Gilroy, Jim Eastwood, Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke, Graeme McDowell, Oliver Jeffers, Jonathan McHugh.

Then think, violent loyalists and dissident republicans... But by who does the world define us by?

The two worlds are graphically alien to one another. However political representation has been happy and willing to snuggle up and play out to the most extreme in society. What Mick Fealty described as Stormont's "drift from real world governance." This drift has turned-off the most progressive, tolerant and non-sectarian. They just ignore the congress of clowns. And likewise, the congress of clowns is happy to ignore the most stable and capable. However, as business owner John Cunningham said, it is not they [the normal people] who need to change - they live in the real world - but it is the politicians and their clients that need to change - for they live in an alien world that has no relevance to modernity. As John Cunningham said:

"Over the past 30 years we've been arguing about the same things. There doesn't seem to be in many ways a great deal of progress made. So our world, the world of business, just tends to ignore it. It [Stormont] has no relevance to us [business]. It's not up to us to change because our attitudes are formed by the real world in which we live, the international business community."

The young, ambitious and aspirational people of Northern Ireland, both Catholic and Portestant, are of Europe, America and the real and digital world. Yes they have loyalties whether it be to Ireland, Northern Ireland or Great Britain; however they do not define themselves singularly by their nationality. As Roger Scruton said:

"Europe... has erected a high culture as a critical aparatus that allows us to put our
national culture into question if we need to."

Because, as Gore Vidal said, "Anyone who loves thier country is in such trouble. That is nonsense. Out of that has come every war, every famine and everything that is wrong in the western world."


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

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Politicians have to catch up with the people

Northern Ireland is simultaneously one of the most progressive and regressive places in the world. However its politics is almost singularly regressive. In a speech at the Sinn Fein London conference John McCallister said:

"These transformed relationships have, in many ways, out-paced our politics.
Our citizens, our businesses, and our cultural figures are seeking ways to flourish in and through those transformed relationships... Their reality is a post-peace process reality. Our politics... well, we have some catching up to do."

Like the concerns raised by Patrick Murphy in the Irish News, John has laid out an important question for Sinn Fein (and one which applies just as much to the DUP and other parties): "Are you really prepared to address - and listen to - 21st century Northern Ireland and 21st century Ireland?"

 

 

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The answer to policy free politics

In the last post we discussed Northern Ireland's world of policy-free politics, which kind of very much makes the "NI21, where are your policies?" debate a misnomer, non-starter, outlier and non-terrestrial. But there's a problem with living in a world of policy-free politics. As Mick Fealty said: "if there's no policies there's no politics."

The solution? According to Mick Fealty:

"The ‘former moderate’ parties can tag along for the ride, or pull back try to develop their own alternative, policy based approach and try to build some form of politics that is a functional response to the material interests of real people."

For Mick, it's about "acting 'through' the middle". He said:

"Building the strength of those who currently occupy the middle actually misses the point. What’s required is the emergence substantive political actors who are committed not to being in the middle, but who are capable of acting decisively through the middle.

In short we need inveterate deal makers who can do deals that stick and who are obsessed with more than covering up for the failures and misadventures of the past, but are instead committed to enlarging the shadow of the future."

The UUP and SDLP have given up on becoming the radical, credible alternative to the DUP/SF sectarian carve-up. This is where NI21 comes in: a party that will take a policy based approach and that will make a functional response to the material interests of real people. For example: jobs, the economy, education, healthcare and so on.

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Northern Ireland - A world of policy free politics

Since its inception NI21 has found itself under a shower of inverted criticism as opponents cat call the party for its lack of policies. The doublespeak and hypocrisy is simply breathtaking. Ventriloquising Mick Fealty, editor of Slugger O'Toole, the old-order parties in Northern Ireland practice a special and unique branch of politics: that being, "policy-free politics." As Mick Fealty said:

"Policy is little in evidence anywhere in Stormont. Nor has there been any clearly articulated ambition to focus on solving real world problems through new policy formation at the political level. The non arrival of CSI and a long promised anti poverty strategy from OFMdFM is indicative.

In the absence of meaningful content, politics is reduced to a series of controversies over Orange parades, the flying of flags, the naming of play parks. Unnoticed, and largely unrermarked upon, the intimidation of minority communities continues on a low level and out of sight of the TV cameras."

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"The main act is a puppet show loosely themed around the politics of identity, which is both its greatest strength and a major vulnerability."

No policies equals no politics and deadlock at best, mismanagement and descent into conflict at worst.

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GenY NI - Your country needs you

Do you remember in June 2013 when Obama implored Northern Ireland to show the world how to patch, mend and get on? To be an example to the world. Remember Hannah Nelson stood up and told a vision of hope and aspiration. Hannah's world is so much the world of the young people in Northern Ireland. In the months since, NI has been a model of dysfunction: unravelling and calling on the crutch of outside help. No courage. No transformative leadership. A vast leaderless mess alien to young people, business and much of the electorate. That's why we need you, the young people to play your part. As Barack Obama said:

"As your leaders step forward to address your challenges through talks by all parties, they’ll need you young people to keep pushing them, to create space for them, to change attitudes."

And this is the important bit:

“Because, ultimately, whether your communities deal with the past and face the future united together isn’t something you have to wait for somebody else to do — that’s a choice you have to make right now. It’s within your power to bring about change."

That's the challenge - you need to speak up, get involved and demand transformative politics. This is urgent. As Mick Fealty said, you need to "feel the fierce urgency of now." Politicians and people on the street are taking what is most precious from you, your peace, your future and prosperity and imposing a way of life that is totally unacceptable.

This blog will give a voice of opposition and leadership. A space to share ideas and to reimagine Northern Ireland. This blog is all about the community and about giving you the power to get involved, by you sharing posts on Facebook and Twitter, by you commenting directly or emailing us your thoughts and suggestions, and by submitting your thoughts directly with guest posts. This is going to be a community driven project by you - the ambitious and aspirational who want something different.

As Alex Kane said of the Obama speech:

"The next generation shouldn’t allow their future to be determined by the one-sided, self-serving narratives of some of the present generation. I really do hope enough youngsters were actually listening to Obama!"

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