Opinion

Tom Kelly: Tory-led unionism will split our fragile society

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly is an Irish News columnist with a background in politics and public relations. He is also a former member of the Policing Board.

Northern Ireland Secretary of State Brandon Lewis
Northern Ireland Secretary of State Brandon Lewis Northern Ireland Secretary of State Brandon Lewis

Since 1972 Northern Ireland has not exactly been blessed with talented secretaries of state. The forgettable were usually political nonentities; the unforgettable were fairly unpleasant; the loveable were few and the constructive never got to stay very long.

In thirteen years of government between 1997 and 2010 the British Labour party gifted the north with no fewer than six title holders. One had star quality - the late Mo Mowlam. A secretary of state local people actually took to their hearts.

The Tory party, not to be outdone by Labour in thoughtlessness, granted us the pleasure of another six candidates over a ten year period. The most promising of which, Julian Smith, got to hold office for a whole six months and twenty days.

The Conservatives surpassed Labour in choosing politicians who hit the heights of blandness.

Having blessed us with titans of tedium over the past decade the Tories finally gave the people of Northern Ireland a slap in the face with a wet kipper in the form of the current incumbent - Brandon Lewis.

At best, Lewis could be described as a useful outlier for the court of King Boris.

One imagines in those days when the sun never set on the British Empire, colonial secretaries would be very much like a Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Strutting around in majestic gardens detached from the realities of local life or realpolitik. Though in fairness, they were more likely to be named Algernon or Max than Brandon.

Brandon 'Sea border? What sea border?' Lewis is breathtakingly oblivious to the reception of every statement he makes.

This is the man who informed the House of Commons the British Government intended to break international law in a “very specific and limited way”. Following this hilarious legal defence by the secretary of state, one UK columnist wrote: ``Imagine Hamlet asking Claudius “Did you kill my dad? And Claudius replying “Only in a limited and specific way”.

Or take last week, when announcing the launch of the NIO-inspired Northern Ireland Centenary events, the hapless resident of Hillsborough said “they would provide an opportunity for us all to reflect on the history of Northern Ireland”. Most of us, having lived through some of that history, won’t have to reflect for very long.

Not knowing the old adage about stopping when you are ahead, Mr Lewis went on that in this special year marking 100 years since partition “the people of Northern Ireland can build on their spirit of togetherness”. That spirit which is so well reflected by a dysfunctional assembly and a balkanised local government framework. And let's not forget Belfast communities separated by nearly 97 peace walls, interfaces and barriers stretching twenty one miles. And this before you mention engaging with border areas cut off from their natural hinterlands.

Of course, Northern Ireland’s origins should be discussed and debated in appropriate forums. Others will want to celebrate this as a centenary and that’s reasonable. But this is not a shared centenary, no more than some other parts of the decade of centenaries were either. If the secretary of state thinks this is some kind of opportunity for a big inter-community jamboree he is somewhat deluded.

This British government is on a mission, a mission let out of the bag by the slippery intervention of the silver spoon fed Jacob Rees-Mogg. Having fractured relations with the devolved regions over Brexit, arch Tories are attempting to undermine not just the Good Friday Agreement but devolution itself by trying impose its very English led form of unionism on Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It will fail.

In attempting this reckless form of cultural plantation they will fuel demand for Scottish independence and a border poll in the north. But worse still they will split open the seams of sectarianism scarcely beneath the surface of Northern Irish society. Hardly a cause for celebration.