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Mad Lads in NI

Started by Blumf, April 08, 2021, 04:59:27 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Wonderful Butternut

There's long been a sense within Loyalism that they've got nothing from the peace process, and in fact 'working-class' loyalists are now worse off. The fact that Unionist parties traditionally catered to the upper classes, and relied on sectarianism to get the votes from the rest of their community and crush most attempts at a cross-community Labour style party has likely been sowing the seeds of working class dissent since the end of WW2.

Although when the position that they've lost was based on gerrymandering the minority Nationalist community into even less political representation than they'd have naturally, discriminating against them in terms of jobs, Council housing etc., and sending the B-specials around if they ever got a bit uppity, I find it difficult to be too sympathetic.

Brexit has now added another layer of shit to proceedings.

Unionists have probably known deep down for a long time that Westminister doesn't give a flying fuck about them. But they could pretend otherwise. Until a year ago.

Brexit proved unequivocally that the Tories, and likely everyone else in mainland Britain for that matter, don't care about Unionists or their shitty 2/3s of a province. The DUP supported Brexit, despite it being an obviously demented idea for anyone in NI to touch with a 10 foot barge pole, to show the Tories how totes on board they are with the particularly toxic form of English nationalism and nostalgic British exceptionalism (stiff upper lip, Spitfires, can we do WW2 again? Killing Jerries was jolly good fun. etc.) that Brexit plays on. And their reward for their support and loyalty to the self destructive vanity project of mainland Britain's elite? A big fuck you, you backward, flat earth, bible thumping hicks. We'll put a customs border down the Irish Sea, quite literally the last thing you wanted, cos that suits us. You are meaningless.

Basically Boris Johnson took proof that the Tories don't care about the Unionists, dropped trou, pinned said proof to his sweaty balls and waved it around in everyone's face.

So where does Unionism go from here? Certainly not to the Republic, no amount of protecting their rights to march around singing songs about how great it is to kill Catholics will make a 'Dublin gubernment!!!" in anyway attractive. Being part of Britain is somewhat central to Unionism as a belief. The NI economy would have to tank badly, or sterling would have to drop to the value of Monopoly money to override that. Independence from both the UK and Ireland is more palatable than being part of a United Ireland, but it's economically unviable, and likely socially unviable. The level of social reform required to end Loyalism, Unionism and Nationalism as relevant political issues up there is completely beyond the institutions or most of the political parties up there.

So I suspect all they can do is throw tantrums about customs borders until the UK negotiates further deals with the EU and de facto ends up back in the customs union. Should only take a decade or so. Nothing will change in NI's electoral landscape in the meantime. Whenever there's a big boy election, Norn Iron will settle into its usual little sectarian head count. Might see a bit of damage done to the DUP in local elections, and maybe even in Stormont elections, but when the general election comes around, Alliance will only make small inroads and the UUP will pull their candidates from marginal seats. Cos otherwise the Unionist vote will split and the Tadghs[nb]or "Taigs" as they call them cos they don't understand where the word originates from[/nb] might end up in charge.

And if that wasn't enough, reading comments I've seen a few Unionists post on various interweb forums, there's obviously a few Unionists living in cloud cuckoo land where this is all the fault of Dublin government and the EU for not compromising enough.

I suspect Arlene would love power sharing to fail (again), so she can just sit there and blame everything on the Shinners. But she can't just pull the DUP out of the power sharing institutions cos that'd give the game away.

Magnum Valentino


An tSaoi

They love being part of Britain, except when it comes to abortion.

idunnosomename

Boris' bridge from London to Londonderry will solve everything

Flouncer

I reckon if all the pintmen got together in one big boozer, they could hammer this out over a few dozen pints and yank the iron out of the fire.

steve98

What iron? There's no iron "in a fire". And even if there is, ffs let's not "yank it out". Yankin' things out has got us into this mess.

canadagoose

Quote from: Flouncer on April 09, 2021, 11:29:32 AM
I reckon if all the pintmen got together in one big boozer, they could hammer this out over a few dozen pints and yank the iron out of the fire.
It's only Norn Iron they need to yank out the fire, the rest is fine.

oy vey

Quote from: JamesTC on April 08, 2021, 11:42:05 PM
Lt Commander Data said they would all be okay in 2024 and he is usually right.

Yep. If they divert auxiliary power to the main deflector that'll nail the bugger.