The English are smarter than we are. That would appear to be a reasonable conclusion from comparing this week's West Tyrone by-election with England's local government elections.
This is not an opinion on the election results. It is a comment on the election issues, the politics which influenced them and the impact which the election results will have on the daily lives of ordinary people.
The English had a choice on the type of society they wanted, ranging from Jeremy Corbyn's moderate socialism to Theresa May's extreme Thatcherism.
But voters in Tyrone could only choose between two largely apolitical sides, which are effectively divided by an argument derived from a medieval religious schism. Their choice was between two flags.
That, you say, is a simplistic analysis. You have a point, especially since local government elections tend to focus on different issues from Westminster elections. But there is an undeniable truth at its core, as evidenced by the election results and their likely impact.
In England, Labour made some gains, but overall Jeremy Corbyn made insufficient progress to suggest that he can replace the Tories in government. Despite internal party divisions on Brexit, Theresa May's performance showed that Thatcherism has not gone away, you know.
In Tyrone we witnessed another dreary re-enactment of that same sectarian Punch and Judy show which is largely divorced from the real lives of ordinary people. The Sinn Féin steamroller once again crushed all before it and, despite having by far the best media performer in Daniel McCrossan, the SDLP still needs a new approach to politics here to make an impact.
Congratulations to Órfhlaith Begley on her victory. Her biggest challenge now will be to avoid the same fate of so many Sinn Féin MPs, who tend to be like winners of the Eurovision Song Contest - once they have won, we rarely hear from them, or about them, again.
Although the Tyrone election raised Brexit, it was significantly different from English politics in that it offered no left wing parties. You may wish to challenge that view, but all five parties embraced Thatcherism while in the executive.
They implemented Conservative attacks on welfare. They cut 5,000 public sector jobs and planned to cut 15,000 more and they advocated reducing corporation tax below the level favoured by Donald Trump. Our only hope, they all said, was to re-balance our economy, meaning a further abandonment of the welfare state through the privatisation of public services.
Contrast that with, for example, Islington Council in London. Because so many families there (as in Tyrone) face a choice between eating and heating, the Labour-controlled council has launched its own not-for-profit energy company. It is expected to cut annual energy bills by up to £277 per household, a welcome move for the 40 per cent of social housing tenants who use pay-as-you go, which allows large energy companies to charge customers more than the fixed rate. That type of radical thinking was absent in Tyrone.
Ironically, one of the most active Labour councillors driving Islington Council's efforts to improve the lives of ordinary people is from West Tyrone. Diarmaid Ward, a solicitor from Omagh, heads the council's housing division.
Last year Diarmaid bombarded Communities Secretary (now Home Secretary) Sajid Javid's Twitter account for 61 days, demanding that the government stop the forced sale of about 300 council homes in Islington which become vacant every year. Javid eventually conceded, shelving the policy until 2019 if his Twitter account remained unchallenged.
Diarmaid agreed, but he will resume his campaign if the policy is re-introduced. It would appear that to make housing an election issue, a Tyrone person has to emigrate.
He has recently published the council's housing policy for the redevelopment of the Holloway prison site (where Constance Markievicz was imprisoned) which requires a minimum of 50 per cent genuinely affordable homes, a significant proportion of family accommodation and a support centre for vulnerable women.
Had Diarmaid remained in Omagh and joined one of the five parties standing in his home constituency on Thursday, he would have been reduced to flag-waving. (Unfortunately, he has been burdened from birth with being my nephew, but he appears to have overcome that challenge in life.)
Sadly, the lesson we can learn from Thursday is that young people from here who want to implement the social and economic objectives of the 1916 Proclamation have to go abroad to do it.
Here we think that 1916 is all about marching with flags, while England is benefiting from the fresh social and economic thinking of our radical younger generation. I told you the English were smart.
