Unity. A costly exercise or cheap at double the price? March 7, 2017
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.trackback
What to make of the Ireland Thinks poll that had the following result?
Using estimates from recent British government budget accounts, Ireland Thinks used a rough estimate of €9bn per annum as the cost for reunification.
Asked how they would vote in a referendum if the cost of a United Ireland was €9bn a year 33.1% said they would vote in favour while 32.5% said they would vote against and 34.4% were undecided.
When the undecided are excluded – 50.4% said they would vote in favour, 49.6% said they would vote against.
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
I question their numbers. The €9bn is an overspend, directed in security/kindness towards the population, and surely would be significantly reduced in the event of reunification. And we’ve already seen evidence that reintegrating both economies generates greater prosperity.
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I just find it impossible to believe that such a referendum would fail in the south. FG and Labour would be the only parties that could credibly argue against and they hardly have a lot of credit with the public.
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Might depend on how a referendum is worded. How about Northern Ireland remaining devolved, with the same arrangements as now but with the UK (English by then) and RoI governments switching roles as sovereign state and guarantor of minority rights respectively?
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I could see that winning. A hands off approach could certainly be attractive to some.
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Joint sovereignty or some variation of seems like a good option. I suspect that over time Brexit may push economic unionists off the fence.
In that case, and assuming demographic changes creep in the same direction, unionists might be persuaded towards it as the lesser of two evils.
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The Greens years ago used to speak about a kind of multichoice referendum.Could this be a runner- united ireland, joint authority, status quo, repartition(yikes!), federal ireland etc. Might provide for an interesting election campaign.
We’re definitely living in interesting times- will those who believe in the two nations theory be proved right or those who believe in the primacy of economics. Will unionists want a union with London no matter what?
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The key would be to convince the Others – social liberals may buy in to unity if the economic benefits are prioritised over cultural arguments. Would imagine a federal republic involving devolution to Dublin, Munster, Leinster, Connacht and Ulster/NI could be a political salve.
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also add to other eu citizens in the north. Do some with in the british government want to use imigrants as a bargining chip on brexit negotiations with europe.
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