tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2623721153002721356.post6715031124928476879..comments2024-03-28T17:49:01.125+00:00Comments on Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness: From the nationalist perspective: beyond communal politicsOwen Polleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00567787385096905811noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2623721153002721356.post-90833599013864349442007-10-02T16:41:00.000+01:002007-10-02T16:41:00.000+01:00Most importantly, it led both unionists and nation...<EM>Most importantly, it led both unionists and nationalists seeing themselves as victims, and obscured the reality that all groups could work together for a shared and prosperous future.</EM><BR/><BR/>It's a good piece. <BR/><BR/>Never mind the "working together for the shared future" bit, there are plenty of issues now, educational selection comes to mind, which the paties have aligned themselves on purely sectarian lines (ie Unionist parties pro-Grammar schools, nationalist parties anti-selection)...and every last one of their voters agrees with them on this? <BR/>I don't think so, there are plenty of unionists who see great weaknesses in the present system, likewise nationalists wish to preseve the grammer schools. <BR/><BR/>Why not informal grass-roots working across the lines on subjects like this, removing the sectarianism which now seems to pollute every issue here, even more so than ten years ago?<BR/><BR/>Moving politics beyond zero-sum benefits everyone, but also would strengthen a Union. People will not want to risk a safe, economically sound, stable country for some utopian dream that may or may not work. And in the perfect scenario, we'd see Unionist parties gradually working themselves out of existance and the normalisation of politics here.O'Neillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02531858236570346203noreply@blogger.com