Conservative government will halt impetus towards Irish unity

Henry McDonald has penned an article for the Guardian Politics blog which is well worth a read. Considering Sinn Féin’s divergent fortunes north and south of the Irish border, he concludes that any impetus towards integration has effectively ground to a standstill, for the time being. The financial crisis has dulled any appetite for unity in the Republic; the provisionals occupy an increasingly irrelevant position in the southern polity and an incoming Conservative government in London, whilst fully committed to operating power sharing in Northern Ireland, will not be inclined to ‘deepen “all Ireland institutions”’ in the manner which nationalists envisage.

Even disregarding performance at the polls, by McDonald’s estimation the Ulster Unionists have already ensured a degree of influence over the thinking of the next government.

“Within less than a year, however, a Tory party with many in the shadow cabinet committed ideologically to the union will be in power.
Even if the Ulster Unionist wing of the Conservative alliance fails to return a single MP to Westminster it will, ironically, still exercise some internal influence on the Tories.”


What better way for those who believe in the Union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland to strengthen that Union, than by entrenching the influence of local MPs at the heart of the next Westminster government?

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