With the rigged Stormont vote inevitably subjecting Northern Ireland to four more years of EU colonial rule, my overriding hope for unionism in 2025 is that it will discover its will to fight back, because without that, I fear, our Union is slipping away.
It is not just the absurdity of being ruled, in 300 areas, by laws we don’t make and can’t change, it’s the fact that constitutionally it means we are no longer a full part of the United Kingdom. Rather, Northern Ireland is now a condominium - in part ruled by U.K. laws and in part by laws made by a foreign parliament.
The political consequences don’t end there. Because these foreign laws that now govern much of our economy are the same laws that govern the Republic, they are in fact the stepping stones to the all-Ireland economy that is designed to be the precursor to Irish unity.
Thus, for unionists to now operate the Stormont Executive within this framework is not just to acquiesce in the diminution of the Union, but to actively facilitate it.
How different things could have been if the DUP had held its nerve. Then, on the Protocol vote the boot would have been on the other foot, with unionists putting it up to pan-nationalism that the choice, if they wanted Stormont back, was to ditch the Protocol.
Alas, however, the leverage unionism had was surrendered by the return to Stormont. Now, we are the hapless pawns of EU colonial rule.
So, my hope for 2025 is that unionism might again find its mojo, before it is too late.
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English (United States) ·