Edward Cooke: A divided unionism cannot deliver for the unionist people of Northern Ireland

It is a message for the elected politicians and their proxies. Realistically, the refusal of the four (plus) unionist parties to unite under one new unionist party leaves unionists with only two optimal choices. One choice is to continue to vote for unionist divisions and whilst doing so (paradoxically) continue to vote for republican and nationalist politicians to return to Stormont.

The other choice is to stand firm, reject unionist political divisions and refuse to vote in Northern Ireland elections forcing the egotistic unionist politicians to cast aside their failed histories and worthless broken promises in order to unite.

I now fear that only something as drastic as unionist voter abstentionism will now bring about unionist political unity. Unionists (such as myself) who argue that unionist voters should reject the ballot box to force unionist unity between paid politicians whose livelihood is dependent on continuing the status-quo are called traitors and lundies by the political party apparatchiks. Yet, if you think recently of the comments of the DUP’s (soon to retire) Jim Shannon, he now has seen the light and agrees that unionist unity is essential. If only he had seen the light a decade ago!

Recently, Kate Hoey, one of Northern Ireland’s most respected unionist politicians, came close to the mark when she argued that the Northern Ireland Assembly should be closed, more MPs returned to Parliament and greater powers given to local councils. Kate Hoey must also understand that ending devolution must be accompanied by unionist political unity.

The 2023 NI council election results were a foregone conclusion. Only mathematical idiots truly expected any increase in the overall unionist vote. Demographics, mathematics and statistics demands unionist unity in Northern Ireland. The minority unionist population and an aging unionist population needs a unified party to safeguard the Union. Unionist political unity that materialises once the Union is ended is worthless. Any new united unionist party will immediately be more attractive to the tens of thousands of migrants who relocated to Northern Ireland to benefit from a British NHS, a British education, and a British welfare state.

In 2023, the four NI unionist leaders took the unionist community into the council elections knowing the eventual outcome. The outcome was inevitable, it will have surprised no unionist voter: a reduced overall turnout, a decline in the UUP vote, a slight increase in TUV vote, a stagnating DUP vote, an increase in the overall nationalist vote. and a further increase in NI unionists who reject the ballot box because they reject unionist political divisions, they reject the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), they reject the Northern Ireland Protocol, and they increasingly reject the concept of devolution.

Unionist rejection of the GFA and devolution inevitably means that NI unionist voter turn-out will continually decline. As I predicated prior to the 2019, 2022 and 2023 elections, the incremental break-up of the Union is taking place. Sadly, nothing can prevent this decline because the unionist political parties are too invested in unionist divisions rather than unionist unity.

In the wake of the 2019 Westminster elections, the New Decade New Approach Deal 2020, the NI Protocol 2021, the 2022 NI Assembly elections, and the 2023 council elections, the NI unionist community loses hope. Aging, numerically a minority, divided and without the safety net of God / religion to sustain it, the NI unionist community is deflated and discouraged and for this the NI unionist parties and their leaders are to blame.

The NI unionist parties have for 20 years peddled lies. They all argue that only their brand of unionism can save Northern Ireland, only their individual political policies can deliver for unionists when they are fully aware that the power-sharing arrangements of consociational government at Stormont can only deliver legislation that is supported by all the unionist and nationalist parties in government. The design of Stormont from 1998 mitigates against individual unionist parties and individual unionist policies, this the unionist leaders know to be true but still they perpetuate the myth that divided unionism can deliver for the NI unionist people!

Divided unionism simply provides the financial support for a handful of unionist politicians and provides them with access to media outlets to stroke their massive egos. The continuing trend of unionist voter abstentionism will continue until the current unionist parties coalesce around what the unionist electorate want – a new united unionist political party!

• Dr Edward Cooke from Mallusk, who has multiple academic qualifications, often writes about the cultural decline of unionism