Our Beliefs: NI & The Union
We believe that for Northern Ireland specifically, the continuance of the Union is the best scenario, economically, socially, culturally and politically.
The United Kingdom has the fourth largest GDP in the world. It is the fifth largest visible trader, third largest invisible trader in the world. It is the country with the fifth largest industrial and fourth largest services output. The FTSE has the third largest (the biggest in Europe) stock market capitalisation in the world. London is amongst the top 3 world financial centres.1
However, we believe that Northern Ireland, in common to certain other parts of the United Kingdom, does not yet reap full benefit from the above facts. We believe that once local politicians, businessmen and entrepreneurs develop more awareness and expertise at how to tap into this economic and financial strength, the present over-reliance on the public-sector will start to diminish. The rest of the United Kingdom is now, more than ever, an easily accessible potential market of over fifty-five million customers; with a more of a pro-active approach, industries such as tourism could easily take advantage of the opportunities provided by this. We also believe that modern technological developments such as the internet, will bring a closer integration of the various markets of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales much closer together to the benefit of all concerned.
The United Kingdom, as a whole, has always had a thriving and varied social and cultural sector. The arrival of many people of differing races and creeds over the last fifty years has developed this even further. We believe that Northern Irish artists, musicians and writers are an important piece in the overall jigsaw and again, should be looking to benefit from the wider audience for their work that the United Kingdom provides. We also believe that, whilst in the past parochial Northern Irish matters may have provided a steady audience, they (the artistic community) can now derive a greater benefit from widening their horizons and by taking advantage of their membership of the varied British, Commonwealth and European families of which they are also a part.
Civil society in Northern Ireland; charities, social and sporting groups can and should be taking advantage of the easier transport and communication links to promote and develop their ideas and build up relationships and friendships with similar groups within England, Scotland and Wales. Such swapping of ideas can only serve to push their organisations forward.
The United Kingdom Parliament presently consists of 646 members of parliament from all parts of the nation. Although Northern Ireland’s MP number 18, other similar sized regions of the country with similar numbers of representatives manage to put aside party differences for the sake of the greater benefit of their region. We believe that if all Northern Irish MPs were present and working together for all of the country’s population, then similar rewards could be reaped.
Surveys in Northern Ireland have consistently shown a majority of 55-60% in favour of Northern Ireland remaining within the United Kingdom. Yet at the same time, only 30-35% of the electorate are presently voting for Unionist parties at General, Local Government and European elections.
We believe that this is actually a positive sign that many (and it would appear a growing) number see the benefits for the continuing with the Union for solely non-traditional reasons. We believe that these people represent an opportunity for UK mainstream parties to recruit and engage within the wider political process but also a warning to the Unionist (and Nationalist and Republican parties) that a substantial part of the electorate is no longer interested in voting on solely communal, religious and national, lines.
We believe that as Northern Ireland’s society becomes more stable a more and more people will be demanding that their elected representatives deal with real day-to-day issues.
Our hope is that in the not too distant future people will be voting and choosing their representatives on exactly the same issues as their fellow citizens in the rest of the United Kingdom.
1The Economist - World in Figures 2005