The Guardian - UK (2022-05-02)

Monday 2 May 2022 The Guardian •

9

Northern Ireland Young voters look for

parties that go beyond the old divisions

Lisa O’Carroll

O

n the streets of

Enniskillen in

County Fermanagh,

a handful of

twentysomething

women, all from a

unionist background, discuss next

week’s elections.

The Northern Ireland protocol

does not come up once. But what

does surface repeatedly among

18- to 34-year-olds asked open

questions about their intentions

is the frustration with the framing

of this election, like many before

it, as a vote on the constitutional

question of whether Northern

Ireland remains part of the U K or

unifi es with Ireland.

“It’s the scaremongering I don’t

like. People telling you you have

to vote DUP to keep the other side

out,” says one 25-year-old worker

who wanted to remain anonymous.

“I’m a unionist, but I’m not going

to be infl uenced by that protocol

stuff ,” she adds, shorthand for why

she is not voting for the DUP.

She voted remain and says

she will probably vote for the

Ulster Unionist party because of

“things like abortion and women’s

issues”. She has no interest in

the constitutional question and

the tribal voting. “Until people

stop viewing things as unionist or

nationalist, Northern Ireland will

never change,” she says.

The Enniskillen straw poll shows

young people who have no memory

of the Troubles yearn for a day

when nationalist -versus -unionist

arguments are a thing of the past.

“I was brought up a Protestant

but I’m not really that infl uenced by

that,” says her friend. “Me and my

siblings will vote for progression

rather than religion .”

Away from the headline battles

between Sinn Féin and the DUP and

the turmoil within unionism, the

question for post -confl ict Northern

Ireland is whether constitutional

politics will ever fade into history.

A LucidTalk poll for the Belfast

Telegraph in March put the

combined support for the Alliance

party, the Green party and other

non-aligned rivals at 24%, with

their most recent survey on Friday

showing a slight decrease at 21%. It

is a sizeable chunk compared with

Sinn Féin at 26% and the DUP at

20% , but is it enough?

The Alliance party will be the

sanctuary for many shunning the

main parties, with some predicting

it could add three to fi ve seats to its

existing eight. But with 90 seats to

be taken it will still be a minority.

“This is not going to be the

election where people cross the

Rubicon in signifi cant numbers,”

says Peter Shirlow , director of the

Down the street are young

parents Grace Hoy, a 27-year-old

primary school teacher who is

looking at voting for the Green

party, and her physiotherapist

husband, Mark , who is looking at an

independent “cross community”

candidate, Donal O’Cofaigh.

“It’s just a bit of a circus this

election,” says Grace. “People focus

too much on stopping the other

side getting in ... The issues for me

are healthcare, the lack of childcare

[and] support for young families.”

Libby Brooks

Scotland correspondent

The war in Ukraine will not aff ect

the timing of a second independ-

ence referendum, Nicola Sturgeon

has said, refusing to rule out court

action after Scotland’s information

commissioner ordered her govern-

ment to publish its legal advice on

holding a second poll.

The Scottish National party leader

and fi rst minister also challenged the

UK government to take a four nations

approach to mitigating the cost of liv-

ing crisis, just as happened during

the pandemic.

Amid growing fears that the

Russia- Ukraine confl ict will continue

into next year, Sturgeon said : “I’ve

not changed my position on the time-

scale we won the mandate for in the

election last year.”

She was speaking on board the

SNP’s canary yellow campaign bus

after knocking on doors around

Glasgow with candidates for this

Thursday’s council elections.

The party’s local manifesto

includes a reiteration of its 2021 Holy-

rood election commitment to hold a

second independence referendum

by the end of 2023.

There has been increasing specu-

lation that the war in Europe could

aff ect this timetable, and that the

party’s stance on a Trident-free

Sturgeon

Ukraine war

‘won’t aff ect

timing of

referendum’

Last week, Scotland’s information

commissioner ordered Sturgeon’s

government to publish its legal

advice on whether it would have the

requisite powers to hold a second

referendum without Westminster’s

consent – which Boris Johnson has

consistently refused – following

a lengthy freedom of information

battle with the Scotsman.

Asked if ministers were plan-

ning to challenge the ruling in court ,

Sturgeon said: “The commissioner’s

made his ruling ; there’s now a 10 June

deadline. Any government is going

to carefully consider all aspects of

that ... The question is not whether

the Scottish government will comply

with the law. We will. The question

is whether political opponents and

actually democrats are willing to

argue their case democratically and

allow the people to decide.”

The SNP, the largest party of local

government, and now in power at

Holyrood for 15 years, is facing seri-

ous challenges to its reputation for

competence, including misman-

agement of vital ferry services and

soaring NHS waiting times, while

there has been outcry at funding cuts

handed down to local services. But

the latest polling suggests the party

will maintain its dominance.

independent Scotland is out of step

with the public mood at a time of

international confl ict.

Sturgeon acknowledged that

“every body in the European Union

is fundamentally rethinking defence

and security” but insist ed this did not

amount to the need for a more fl ex-

ible policy around nuclear weapons

after independence. “My party is very

strongly, in principle and for practi-

cal reasons, against nuclear weapons,

and that’s not going to change. ”

▲ Nicola

Sturgeon poses

for selfi es in

Portobello,

Edinburgh. Left,

on Portobello

beach. Above

right, on the

campaign trail

in Burntisland

MAIN PHOTOGRAPHS:

DUNCAN MCGLYNN

Institute of Irish studies at the

University of Liverpool. “People say

they’re fed up ... They don’t want

the election to be about the legacy,

they want the end to arguing, they

want a diff erent assembly, but the

thing about most of the people who

feel that way is they don’t vote .”

He believes the proportional

representation system could

deliver some results for those in

the middle. “What we are seeing

is there is a growth for those non -

constitutional parties, but where

they’re very strong is in second

preferences,” he says. “That could

theoretically be a gamechanger .”

Naomi Long , the Alliance party

leader, expresses frustration that

those who support the non-aligned

parties do not have the same voice

as the unionists and nationalists

thanks to the system set up for

power-sharing. She wants an end to

the designation of members of the

legislative assembly as unionist,

nationalist or other, point ing out

that the 15% of MLAs who are non-

aligned in the assembly count for

less in votes on key issues. “ The

days of designations are over,” she

says. “The Good Friday agreement

allowed us an opportunity to

manage our divisions, but surely

as a society that cannot be the

ceiling of our ambitions.”

‘It’s a bit of a circus.

People focus too

much on stopping the

other side getting in’

Grace Hoy

Voter, Enniskillen

National

Politics