Letter: Assurances from prime minister over 'off the table' border poll mean nothing
A letter from R G McDowell:
Many unionists will have welcomed the prime minister’s comments on his recent visit to Northern Ireland that a united Ireland poll was off the table. Equally, many republicans may not have been happy with it.
It would be short sighted of unionists to take any comfort in this. While I don’t doubt the prime minister is sincere in wanting to move away from the divisive politics of referendums in favour of more tangible issues, his assurances mean nothing when the reality of a joint authority Irish Sea border still exists.
Unionists could not have wished for a prime minister to say anything more reassuring than Boris Johnson did at the DUP conference in 2018 when he said no British government would accept an economic border in the Irish Sea. It meant nothing.
Unionism seems fixated on preventing a border poll when our real concern should be that the sovereignty of our border has been changed without such a poll. A border poll maybe the one vote unionism could still win and might even be the one thing that might unite and realign unionism.
Some unionist politicians quote figures like the nationalist vote has barely changed, saying it was 39.6% in 1998 and in 2022 it was only up to 40.3%. If they really believe that why do so many unionist politicians seem so scared of having such a poll?
Our problem is not that there might be a border poll but that the terms of it would be fair. If unionism were to win a border poll then there must be no Irish Sea border and full reunification with the United Kingdom. Preventing a border poll means nothing if our border can and is being changed without such a vote.
Unionism made a great mistake in adopting a business-as-usual approach to Stormont and allowing the Irish Sea border to become normalised.
The real comments that unionism should be listening to is our secretary of state saying that the Irish Sea border arrangements are pretty much settled, effectively saying we will never again be a full part of the United Kingdom.
It is perceived as settled because Unionist participation in the Stormont Executive has normalised it.
R G McDowell, Belfast BT5