Letter: Politicians on both sides of the divide should be focused on improving lives of the Northern Ireland population
A letter from Walter Ellis:
The people and politicians of Northern Ireland are caught in a trap from which, it seems, they cannot escape.
Unionists want a province in which acceptance of its place within the United Kingdom is absolute and beyond controversy; nationalists demand with equal fervour that "the North" should be reintegrated into a united Ireland, with Dublin as its capital.
Ordinary citizens (regardless of their preferred sovereignty) do, for the most part, manage to get on with their everyday lives, though in hardline republican and loyalist districts it can be a close-run thing.
For politicians, however, being on one side or the other is a full-time job, which must be exhausting.
DUP and Sinn Fein MLAs, in particular, seem to wake up each morning thanking God for their provenance before spending the rest of their days repeating the same things over and over again while rubbishing the claims of their opponents.
As it happens, I favour a united Ireland, but between now and the border poll that must eventually come (and which may decide nothing), could the political class and their hangers-on please resolve to concentrate on the economy and improving the lives of all the people of Northern Ireland?
You are like characters in a sketch by comedian Harry Enfield, played on a loop, and we're tired of you ... until, that is, the next election, when we'll vote for you same as always because, when it comes down to it, we can't help ourselves.
Walter Ellis, France