Unionism must stop blaming others for its decline. Whingeing on a loop is not a strategy
Unionism finds itself in a constitutional position which is maybe best described as hokey-cokey status: neither quite in the UK, nor quite out of it. Photo: Bryan O’Brien / The Irish Times. In the UK general election, in April 1955, it won just under 70 per cent of the vote and 10 of the 12 seats . In the 1953 general election to the Northern Ireland Parliament, unionists won 39 of the 52 seats and the total unionist/pro-union vote accounted for 73 per cent of the overall tally.
But even though those blows unsettled unionism, they came against a background in which unionism retained a reasonably comfortable majority. The constitutional guarantee ensured that Northern Ireland remained in the UK until a majority decide otherwise, so unionists, although unhappy with the blows, took comfort in the safety net of the guarantee and their continuing lead in the polls.
On top of all that it is now commonplace to hear mainstream unionism and loyalism complain about two-tier policing, along with pro-nationalist bias in most of the print and broadcast media, in the judiciary and in just about any decision made at council, Assembly or Westminster. I can understand the anger over the protocol and framework . But the ongoing tidal wave of “poor us” messaging is a massive turn-off for those who want unionism to get its act together, assess the everyday realities of its position, reassess its campaigns and strategies, and adopt what might be understood as the Ian Dury “reasons to be cheerful” approach.
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