I recently attended an Ireland’s Future gathering at St Mary’s College about the road map to a border poll which turned out, to no surprise, to be an evangelical lecture about the virtues of Irish unification. As a ‘persuadable’ I am up for a thoughtful, social, political, and economically progressive-driven road map, but this was not it. This event was designed to appeal to the converted, a ‘fait accompli’, out of which would evolve a social, political and economic utopia. There was no critique of the process, the vision or the public policy agenda that should have underpinned this road map. I commented that the road map as laid out had the same amount of credibility as Long John Silver’s map in Treasure Island. Nationalists and unionists were akin to the two tribes of Israel, missing from those who would see themselves as ‘socialists’ was the term working-class. To remind the esteemed panel, one of the great tragedies of our past is that working people were pitted against each other based on the narrative that, working-class William and working-class Seamus had nothing in common. There was rounds of applause for quoting Socrates and saying, “It’s over for unionism.” The panel rightly highlighted the failures of majoritarianism and then went on to blow the demographic dog whistle. There was no comment about building an island on shared values; no mention of the complexities of integrating public services; nothing about an Ireland built on a secular constitution; nothing about education and the future of work and, more importantly, nothing about how to build social cohesion. They could not even agree as members of the same pressure group on the ‘New Ireland’ structure, unitary or balkanised. When challenged on the economic assertions by Brendan O’Leary at an event organised by Ireland’s Future in May 2023 and their Planning for Strong Economy report, the response was: “I know nothing” and we stand over the veracity of our report. I agree that the Protestant hegemony created in 1921 is both a political and economic failure. However, the idea that the EU, which is £10 billion a year short after Brexit, and that the US, which is engaging in economic nationalism and has a $33 trillion national debt, are going to throw money at Irish unification on top of funding a European war is fanciful. Just a few other economic facts to consider. Ireland has been a net contributor to EU funds for the last three years; Ireland’s public debt per capita at €44,000 is one of the highest in the world; 60 per cent of Northern GDP comes out of the public sector with the public sector making up 27 per cent of the workforce against 15 per cent in Ireland. Civil servants make up 1:70 of the population in Northern Ireland and 1:110 in ROI. Finally, the panel members should read Paul Gosling’s report and the paper from the former governor of Ireland Central Bank Patrick Honohan Is Ireland really the most prosperous country in Europe and even my blogs on the subject at, thegob.org
SUNEIL SHARMA
Belfast BT8
Corbyn and Starmer creating illusions
The Labour Party former and present leader have plunged themselves into the divided issue of Irish unity or union with the UK. Corbyn advocating unity, Starmer the union. Both fail to understand the purpose of why the constitutional question in Ireland is deliberately maintained, nor have they any approach to resolve it realistically.
Since partition the constitutional question has dominated the political agenda both in the north and south. In the south Fianna Fáil and Fianna Gael have used the constitutional position of what they refer to as the ‘six counties’, in order to dominate the political scene in Ireland. This is at the expense of class-based politics. The use of the constitution is continued by Sinn Féin – who may form the next government in the south – on the aspiration of Irish unity. Every election in the north has dominated and divided the electorate, favouring the dominance of the nationalist and unionist parties.
All these parties are pro-capitalist and are essential to protecting and promoting private enterprise in the interests of the corporations. The essence for these parties and not without success, is to maintain the constitutional issue over the social and economic crisis facing people north and south.
Irrespective of any attempts to resolve the constitutional question under capitalism, be it towards Irish unity or continue the union with the UK, the issue will remain unresolved. It is in the interests of these capitalist nationalist and unionist parties for it to remain so and in addition the same interests of the UK and Irish governments. The purpose is to maintain division and continue to control people in the north and south.
The Labour Party should not stand ‘neutral’ on the constitutional question, nor so-called solutions to resolve it, like border polls. The party should explain to people that such a poll will not lead to a solution to the constitutional question – indeed it could ignite civil conflict, by reactionary loyalist and republican paramilitaries.
It is the corrupt system of capitalism that people north and south need to unite and challenge. Any approach to resolving the constitutional question must be based on the people with a socialist agenda, where wealth is publicly owned and democratically controlled by the people.
HARRY HUTCHINSON
Labour Party NI
Controllable money
“Once you are not allowed to have cash, every transaction you undertake becomes effectively under surveillance, and also stoppable.” (Peter Hitchens speaking on TalkTV Monday August 7).
“The cashless society is coming. The big banks want it and with that there will be control on how you can spend your money. We already have legally binding targets for carbon emissions, for countries, companies, carbon-trading schemes. It’s not going to be very long before you have your own personal carbon limit. And what better way to stop you buying that extra flight, that extra holiday, than being able to control what you spend” (Nigel Farage speaking on his own podcast, August 7). “While cash transactions are anonymous, a central bank digital currency will allow the government to surveil all our private financial affairs. The central bank will have the power to enforce dollar limits on our transactions restricting where you can send money, where you can spend it, and when money expires (Robert Kennedy jnr texting in a tweet, this year). It’s not a left and right issue. It’s more about good versus evil, in my opinion.
LOUIS SHAWCROSS
Hillsborough, Co Down
