lonelyplanetmum
As I've mentioned before.. if you think about reading a history essay about events 300 years ago. (Imagine Stormont and Westminster were constituently the same back then.) If you read that:
1. Stormont collapsed for unrelated reasons; then
2. within months Westminster decided to make a decision which hugely affected NI whilst Stormont was suspended.
An equivalent event or series of events actually happened.
- Acts of Union 1800-1801, Ireland directly governed from Westminster, Irish Parliament eliminated.
- Famine mid 1840s.
- Agrarian 'terrorism' from then on allied with political campaigns resulted in land reform (farmers allowed to purchase land from landlords) and the development of sentiment in favour of Home Rule, eventually discarded in favour of outright independence.
Restoration of Stormont might not alter Brexit but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be done.
If you are in NI do you feel that a properly functioning Stormont would give you more of a voice re your life, the border and the risks ?
From here I think it looks that morally more effort to restore Stormont would be the correct consensual and transparent thing to do....
...If you add in that NI politicians gave the Westminster gov their majority in return for cash?
I'm not saying it is opportunism but do think it looks like opportunism from an historical perspective.
The suspension of Stormont has contributed to the rise of New IRA violence just as the voicelessness of generations past contributed to the violence of the Troubles. In both cases the lack of a voice and the feeling that Westminster and the Unionists were in cahoots to deliberately keep a nationalist voice silenced and powerless to control the welfare or destiny of the nationalist community fanned the embers that had always been there.
Restoration of Stormont is a necessity but the Tories survive politically only as long as they don't poke the DUP bear, so it is a very remote possibility. The only thing that could embolden the Tories is the prospect of a Labour win in a GE, weirdly, as a Labour win would be anathema to the DUP. But they have no motivation to intervene in NI - nationalist violence always makes Tory patriotic solidity look appealing even to people who might vote Labour. Overall, the DUP hold the cards here, which in turn alienates Republican factions in NI, so we have a cycle going that will result in violence and chaos before it is over.
All depressingly unnecessary. TM's GE was the single most stupid political mistake in recent history.