Graham Spencer and Chris Hudson: Unionism in Northern Ireland is destined to become less relevant unless it changes

Compiled by the Northern Ireland Development Group (NIDG) the report is based on consultations with a cross-section of people on how they viewed pro-Union politics. Providing 25 challenges to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement it also indicates how a general dissatisfaction for unionist politics relates to an inability to conceive of a better future and a more inclusive society.

Responses to the consultations include a desire to see greater collaboration between the parties to promote citizenship, social responsibility and public engagement all of which are framed and supported by a strong anti-sectarian ethos. Respondents also called for constructive relationships not only within Northern Ireland but between North and South too.

Here are the main 25 challenges to unionism:

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1. Emphasise Northern Ireland as a place for all

2. Stress that 200 all-Ireland bodies already exist

3. Win-lose politics has entrenched division

4. Understand that unionism is getting weaker because of an inability to change

5. Ensure that NI works for everyone

6. Define citizenship as a basis for social responsibility

7. Stress social justice through anti-sectarian laws

8. Work to build the middle-ground to end the two-party system

9. Develop platforms for women’s voices to be heard

10. Promote IT, film and science advances as well as economic development in NI

11. Re-open the civic forum (included in the Good Friday Agreement) to include diverse voices

12. Develop areas that underpin unionist transformation

13. Realise that people who are not unionist in outlook are now more important to keep Union

14. Do not defend the indefensible and be categorical about the impact of violence

15. Build friendships across the Union, with the US, Europe and the Commonwealth

16. Address poverty as a manifestation of divisions

17. Develop integration of education

18. Recognise that hybrid identities are driving agendas and use this to promote the Union

19. Prioritise the concerns of the young

20. Do not push issues to serve short-term aims

21. Develop a culture of accommodation

22. Seek diverse voices to develop a more inclusive pro-Union position

23. Adopt a constructively approach to address failings of the protocol as well as identify potentials

24. Claim success, even if partial

25. Think ‘globally’ and how the pro-Union position is seen outside NI

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What perhaps underlines the challenges and indeed binds them is the need for unionism to try and define a new common good that cuts across boundaries on areas such as education, training, employment, housing and health. And that work on these areas should demonstrate the potential importance inclusivity has for permeating other more contentious aspects of social and political life.

The conversations concluded that a big part of the problem is unionism’s inability to imagine and articulate a compelling future. That it continues to promote intransigence and that it cannot express confidence or creativity because of that.

The protocol debacle illustrates the point. Emphasising the Act of Union from over 200 years ago as justification for resistance is hardly likely to elicit sympathy from others. On the other hand a focus on how and why the protocol risks threatening reconciliation is likely to gain more interest and not only because the EU has pumped billions into reconciliation projects in NI.

At its centre the report reflects a desire for good governance. It also shows how a more respectful and diverse NI is desired, where individual aspiration can be fulfilled and points towards the need for a new public interest ethos to underpin that process. A recurring suggestion is that unionist politics should focus on working more constructively with deprived areas and factoring the needs of those areas into action. This reflected the call for a wider range of voices involved in shaping the kind of Northern Ireland that would benefit all rather than just some.

Respondents to the NIDG were particularly critical of the polarising nature of politics that uses emotions about national identity as a means for persuading people to vote for political parties that do little to alleviate the pressing social problems they face. Also evident from the discussions was the view that unionism should engage honestly about the pain of partition that poisoned communal relations and fuelled the conflict and that this discussion should become the basis of building better relations within NI and between North and South.

Overall, however, the conversations strongly emphasised that pro-Union politics has tended to obstruct NI from realising its potential and that for this to happen politics must start working across boundaries of difference. That it is time for unionist politicians to acknowledge not only the limitations of the familiar approach of resistance and pessimism but understand the damage it has created.

Much fine work is going on in NI to try and erode the hardening of borders that keeps disrespect and fear alive but this has happened in spite of unionist politics and not because of it. Now there is a demand for unionist politics to shape a new optimism and confidence that reflects the energy and desires of the next generation.

Whether the unionist parties are capable of this transformation is another question. Without such change pro-Union politics is destined to become less relevant and indeed an increasing impediment to the people it purports to represent.

• Graham Spencer is Professor of Politics at the University of Portsmouth and Rev Chris Hudson ministers at All Soul’s Church, Belfast. Both participated in the report