If Jeffrey Donaldson did not exist, nationalism would have to invent him. Attacking the DUP is a useful distraction not only from the failure of the Good Friday Agreement, but from nationalism’s contribution to the collapse of public services here.
Of course you disagree, so let’s say that Jeffrey should be flogged in public and then boiled in oil. Right, do you feel better now? Good, so let’s look at the world which political sectarianism has created for ordinary people here.
You already know the details: 700,000 on NHS waiting lists (36 per cent of the population), an estimated 400,000 in what is known as food insecurity, 104,000 children in poverty and almost 9,000 homeless households.
And that, say nationalists, is Jeffrey’s fault. Sinn Féin wants Stormont to “get back to work” to tackle “crippling health waiting lists”. However, it was Stormont’s “work” which created those crippling waiting lists as the parties cynically promoted their own interests over those of the people who elected them.
(People do not always vote in their best interests, as Margaret Thatcher proved.)
Everyone here is united on the need to preserve the NHS, but there have been no monster rallies to prevent its decline. Where too are the rallies for education, welfare, and housing? Instead, Sinn Féin says everyone is “having a conversation” about a united Ireland. Really?
You may disagree, but in the clamour for the DUP’s return to Stormont, you may have missed an important issue. Just before Christmas, a Derry GP announced he has converted his Bogside practice into the first in the north to operate with both private as well as NHS patients.
He would like to have avoided the move, but Stormont’s health system neglect makes it inevitable. His decision (through no fault of his own) marks the beginning of the end of completely free GP services here.
Of all the places in the north for that to happen, it is tragically ironic that it should take place in the Bogside, which for so long was a support base for the IRA. Sinn Féin’s day has come, but our universal health service’s day has gone.
After 30 years of war and 25 years of Stormont, the only part of British rule nationalism has managed to dismantle is the British welfare state.
Nationalism’s obsession with a united Ireland (and its accompanying failure to either define it, or appreciate what it really means) has two main strategies: predicting when a border poll might be held (without any prediction of the result) and huge public rallies on Ireland’s future.
We all want to save the NHS - don’t we?
Everyone here is united on the need to preserve the NHS, but there have been no monster rallies to prevent its decline. Where too are the rallies for education, welfare, and housing? Instead, SF says everyone is “having a conversation” about a united Ireland. Really?
Go into the cancer centre in the City Hospital any day next week and see how many are talking about it. Visit a food bank and see how many hungry people arrive carrying a flag.
A united Ireland is a noble aspiration, but trying to achieve it through a sectarian poll, will merely produce more division whatever the result.
The Bogside will inevitably become a no-go area for the NHS, unless we move away from politics which is little different from a match between Celtic and Rangers – entertainment for spectators, but irrelevant in the real lives of ordinary people
Pearse said that Ireland without its people meant nothing to him. So who is standing up for a united people today in health, education and welfare? If our political parties had spent half as much time defending the NHS as they have waving flags, we would not be in this public services mess.
The resistance to unionist rule began with the Battle of the Bogside and the no-go area for the army and the RUC which followed.
Today the Bogside will inevitably become a no-go area for the NHS, unless we move away from politics which is little different from a match between Celtic and Rangers – entertainment for spectators, but irrelevant in the real lives of ordinary people.
So half a century later, the Battle of the Bogside has been lost – not because the RUC or the army won. Victory must go to sectarianism, the virus which is killing the NHS here and which is spread through the ballot box.
Yes, you can go back to attacking Jeffrey now. Just don’t expect it to get you an appointment with your GP.
