Letter: Arguments over who can vote in any future border poll are a distraction from the real pressing issues

Jamie Bryson claims that the UK government made a fundamental constitutional wrong-turn in applying the principles of self-determination in the Belfast and other agreements (The constitutional future of Northern Ireland should be a matter for all of the UK, not just NI, News Letter, May 30).

He argues that any future border poll should include a majority of voters in Great Britain in addition to NI and RoI, citing the principles of international law (on a region’s rights to pursue unilateral self-determination) included in the UK supreme court’s recent response to the lord advocate’s Scottish reference. This stems from a Canadian supreme court ruling which prevented Quebec from gaining the right to secede unilaterally, as it was deemed a matter for the whole people of that territory.

Not that I am advocating for or against a border poll but Mr Bryson fails to mention that a precedent was also established in the 2014 Scottish referendum relating to the eligibility to vote in a matter of self-determination, or mention that NI is different in that the Belfast Agreement is an internationally-recognised treaty.

The Scottish Independence Referendum (Franchise) Act 2013 defined the eligibility to vote in which only those who were resident in Scotland or were service/Crown personnel serving in the UK or overseas, but registered in Scotland, could vote.

However, this is all a distraction, as the most pressing issue is a lack of a working assembly at Stormont. Ian Paisley’s intervention claiming that it could be “an ice age” before the UK government meets their seven tests to enable a return to Stormont, is as depressing as ever.

In 2020, in a reply to a question about the criteria for a border poll, a DUP spokesperson apparently told The Detail: “After three years with no government we should be focusing on improving our schools, hospitals and roads rather than on pipe-dreams of a united Ireland.”

Likewise, after over a year of no government, maybe the DUP should be focusing on the pressing local issues rather than on pipe dreams of a Brexit settlement that will never be met.

Brian Pope, former councillor, ABC council, Banbridge