Trevor Ringland: Individuals such as Tim Collins and Gavin Robinson will bring a more strategic approach to promoting the Union

The ordinary people of Northern Ireland have achieved so much since the 1998 agreement.

We are enjoying a much more peaceful and prosperous society, with the potential for what is good to be even better.

The problems we face have solutions but we need to move on from just having a government to having a good government that takes on difficulties and delivers for voters. The popularity of, and respect for, Robin Swann as Health Minister was largely due to people recognising that he was someone who cared about the well-being of all the people of Northern Ireland and tried to do his best in leading his Department to meet significant challenges

Constitutionally, there has been much discussion about change, though consistently a considerable majority are in favour of the status quo. By that I mean a peaceful and prosperous Northern Ireland that is a shared home place for all of us who live here. Add great relations across the rest of the United Kingdom and this island. There are already over two hundred all-Ireland bodies, and many that are shared between these islands. We are tied together by business and social relations , friendships and family. Perhaps we could describe this model as, “happily separate but love getting together”. According to the NI Life and Times survey 2023 79% of people here are content with that position , while only 5% are not.

The problem for those of us that are content with the present position is that there is no -one arguing strongly for what I have outlined above. There has been an identifiable shift in unionism, though that journey is far from complete, as narrow party interests can still take precedence over a strategic approach to strengthening the status quo for the benefit of all. In effect, the status quo is supported by pro-Union people, those who like being Northern Irish and many in Alliance. Indeed, many nationalists and republicans realise too that there is a bit of work to be done on relationships here, before any constitutional change is possible.

As this is a Westminster election hence a proper strategy to support the status quo would be to send representatives to Parliament who will attend, sell the Northern Ireland that we now enjoy and implement the solutions to the challenges still to be addressed and importantly have the knowledge and skills to contribute to the issues that impact on the whole of the UK such as defence, foreign policy, taxation, social security and a whole spectrum of other matters and take every opportunity to have the maturity to reflect our true character in all its diversity.

With devolution, our MPs will be supported by the MLAs and councillors in their area with a proper concept of a team striving to achieve the best for the people they are elected to serve. So, it is not just about parties anymore but as our pro-union politics is evolving, it is also about individuals such as Tim Collins and Gavin Robinson and others who will bring a more strategic approach to actively promoting the status quo. It is time for good government that maximises the real potential that we have here and set aside the populism that has served us so badly in the past. Such a political change is for the future benefit of all of us who share this place.

Trevor Ringland, Co Down