THE debate on water charging north and south has been a bit of an ideological pick'n'mix.
When the NIO began pushing charges under direct rule from 2003 I had no problem opposing them. As an economic Tory, I thought the government had quite enough of the public's money. When it became clear that the NIO saw charging as a prelude to privatisation, I had little trouble opposing that either. Market forces are useless in a natural monopoly, as a series of disasters in England's water industry were proving at the time. However, I had to concede that behind my precious political principles might lie a basic unwillingness to fork over more cash.
Similar contortions were evident on the left, which seized the popular mood against water charging during direct rule. Public sector unions were unlikely champions of a cause that, by cutting Stormont's income, would inevitably hit public sector jobs.
The unions claimed their concern was for low-income households but the degree of selflessness that implied would have been unusual, to put it mildly. Perhaps what really helped the comrades to square their public sector circle was the same dislike of a new bill coming through the door.
Sinn Féin and the DUP agreed to defer water charging at the restoration of devolution in 2007.
There was no need for them to work out an ideological position on this, because nobody else had. So the deferral was couched in terms of not 'paying twice' (via rates and a new charge) rather than in terms of a bigger state versus a smaller state, or of public versus private. Stormont's political philosophy literally went no further than 'no new bill through your door'.
There the matter rested until this year's budget crisis came to a head, just as water charging brought people onto the streets in the Republic.
The south's water debate has been slightly different to ours because the Irish government has addressed privatisation head on, insisting a sell-off is not on the cards and even proposing a law against it. This makes it particularly curious that the southern revolt against water charging has also been captured by the left.
Water charging without privatisation is simply a tax and the only alternative to tax in a time of austerity is cuts. Does the left not usually prefer tax to cuts?
Concerns about low-income households could be mitigated through a progressive charging structure, as with income tax.
Yet while the left would never call for the abolition of income tax it is demanding the abolition of water charges, despite the public spending squeeze that must follow. Once again, is this about anything more than not wanting an extra bill?
Like Stormont, the Irish government is struggling to make its case because it has no ideological position from which to argue.
Irish Water was not created to serve some grand ideal - it was created as an accounting trick to keep public borrowing off the books.
The Republic's water system requires modernisation, Ireland is constrained by Europe from taking on more debt, but a so-called 'semi-state' company with a tax masquerading as its revenue is just private enough to borrow on the open market. Northern Ireland Water was established under similar considerations, privatisation plots notwithstanding. Housing Associations work the same way, as more broadly does the Private Finance Initiative. While these wheezes are associated today with Gordon Brown they were introduced under Margaret Thatcher. Any ideological purpose they originally served turned very quickly into cynical managerialism.
The southern uprising against water charges is not about the left versus the right, whatever the placards might say. The placard-wavers could as easily be members of America's Tea Party (Tea stands for 'Taxed Enough Already'). This is an uprising of the public against technocrats, whose latest trick has shattered the illusion of something for nothing and who - crucially - offer no higher vision or principle that would justify any pain.
Sinn Féin was outflanked to the left on water charging in two recent southern by-elections. It will not make that mistake again. The DUP is casting around for a way to fund lower corporation tax, which is the most right-wing economic policy ever seriously considered in Northern Ireland. Meanwhile, both parties have passed an austerity budget with no revenue-raising measures.
If you have any position on water charging that goes deeper than not wanting another bill, you should figure it out. Otherwise, you are about to become cannon-fodder in a lot of other people's arguments. newton@irishnews.com