Published in today's Newsletter was the following article by Owen Polley:-
They heard a speech from their chairman, Kevin Hollinrake, and the shadow secretary of state, Alex Burghart, who criticised the Labour government and argued that a Conservative administration would do better. Let’s be realistic, it is a difficult time to be a Tory anywhere in the UK, never mind in this province, where the party has long struggled to win votes.
The public has turned against Sir Keir Starmer, but the beneficiaries so far have been Reform UK and now the revamped, hard-left Green Party. In this jurisdiction, many people who hated Brexit still blame the Conservatives for bringing it about, while those who wanted to get out of the European Union hold them responsible for the Windsor Framework, which effectively prevented this part of the UK from leaving.
This hasn’t discouraged the local Tories. They remain an indefatigable group of campaigners, that is determined to offer voters here a centre-right option in elections and a say in Westminster politics.
The fact that they are still supported in these aims by the national Conservative party, to some degree at least, is not something that should be derided or mocked. It should be a source of encouragement to those of us who value the Union.
It has become common for unionists in Ulster to claim that the Tories do not care about Northern Ireland or extend this observation to all Westminster politicians. This is an understandable view, particularly given what has happened over the past few years.
The Irish Sea border was first agreed by Theresa May and imposed by Boris Johnson, but all the subsequent Conservative leaders defended some form of special trading arrangements between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
For those with longer memories, there was the Downing Street declaration, which reiterated that the government had “no selfish strategic or economic interest” here; the Anglo-Irish agreement that gave Dublin a say in our affairs; Heath’s suspension of Stormont; or even Churchill’s supposed willingness to hand Northern Ireland over to De Valera during the Second World War.
These examples, and Labour’s more explicit sympathies for Irish separatism, have fuelled the idea that the UK’s tacit policy since 1921 has been to ‘disengage’ from Northern Ireland. One prominent unionist commentator on a recent podcast even suggested that unionists should realise that Westminster, rather than Sinn Fein, was their real enemy.
Northern Ireland has been treated shabbily and thoughtlessly many times by its national government, but this interpretation is a self-absorbed conspiracy theory. The world does not revolve around this province and nor do national politics.
If the parties of government at Westminster really were committed to ‘disengaging’ from Northern Ireland, it is unthinkable that they would not have done so over the last century.
It would not have been a difficult policy to enact or justify.
On the contrary, the Conservatives in particular, while their actions have not always matched their words, have usually been keen to emphasise their support for Northern Ireland’s place in the UK. They have also gone to some inconvenience and expense to stand candidates here, particularly in general elections.
Under David Cameron, the party made a genuine attempt to break into Ulster politics through an electoral pact with the UUP and then a rebrand as the NI Conservatives. His successors were less invested in growing the party here, but they all emphasised that they would ‘never be neutral’ on our place in the Union.
You could argue, as some local Tories do privately, that these efforts were inadequate or half-hearted, but it is significant that they were made at all.
The Conservatives, at the very least, see symbolic value in standing in every part of the UK, including in Northern Ireland. They want to be seen as unionists and supporters of Northern Ireland’s role in the Union.
English, Scottish or Welsh MPs do not always understand the nuances of politics here, or act like our place in the Union is their overwhelming priority, but it would be surprising if they did.
That does not mean that the instincts of most Conservatives are not generally sound. Look at Michael Gove, the former cabinet minister who is now Spectator editor, who recently told an Irish pro-Palestine protester in no uncertain terms that Northern Ireland was British.
Even some Labour politicians, including Starmer, are keen to emphasise that they would prefer this part of the nation to remain in the UK.
The News Letter reported again this week on the generosity of the Treasury in funding our public services and indeed warned that these bail-outs allowed the executive to avoid taking difficult decisions.
Northern Ireland has undoubtedly been treated badly by Westminster on some prominent occasions, most recently when the government agreed to an Irish Sea border.
There is most definitely, though, no overarching conspiracy to get rid of us, as is frequently implied. When unionists suggest otherwise, they simply do nationalists’ job for them.
Indeed, unionists here have arguably contributed at least as much as their counterparts on the mainland to our sometimes difficult relationship with Westminster.
They have too often failed to argue our case in a reasonable way or contribute properly to national politics. And, far too frequently, they have implied that we should get special treatment, rather than being treated like the rest of the UK.
