Editorial: Unionists right to talk about the way forward

Last week’s council election can only be described as bad for unionism.

​A gloss can be put on to say that the DUP almost held its council seat total, but the overall statistics were grim.

Nationalism has not merely moved ahead of unionism in first preference votes, it has done so decisively. The margin of the main nationalist parties over the unionist ones is a hefty 3% if People Before Profit is added to the former total (it does not designate as nationalist at Stormont but does advocate an all Ireland).

Unionism is divided. It has struggled to convey to voters the profound constitutional, economic and cultural problems caused by an internal UK Northern Ireland-Great Britain trade border. Unionism is increasingly seen as being on the wrong side of the divide on the social issues that matter to many young people, such as the right to have same sex relationships on a par with opposite sex ones. Meanwhile, demographic change, while gleefully overstated by some sectarian Irish nationalists, is real, albeit having a more gradual impact than such agitators would wish.

Things, therefore, are not good for unionism. But in the financial world some analysts advocate buying stocks at their lowest levels, because things can only get better. While it would take a remarkably optimistic mindset to think that things can only get better for unionists, it is plausible to say they might not get worse and could even recover.

We do not know how younger generations will feel about matters such as sovereignty in 10 or 20 years. But we do know that support for an all Ireland has not increased much since Brexit. Nationalism has not increased in 25 years. And there have been unexpected trends such as many young people from a nationalist background voting Alliance.

Unionist leaders seem keen to discuss the future of unionism. We hope they do.