IT’S pretty obvious that nationalists and unionists hold diametrically opposed positions on the national question which substitutes for bread and butter politics here.

However, have you noticed that their approach to politics is also diametrically opposed?

Nationalist politicians always propose policies which look to the future and address the future, while unionist politicians always propose policies which seek to preserve the past and deny the future.

For example, last week Sinn Féin declared it is “time for a new initiative on Irish unity”.

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Referring to the successful Hume/Adams dialogue, Declan Kearney, the party chair, suggested that experience “should be a present-day incentive for all parties within the national democratic tradition, including the Irish government, to affirm political principles and objectives for the achievement of Irish unity”.

Fat chance with Micheál Martin as taoiseach, who, not only in the view of Sinn Féin figures, “is the single biggest impediment to this Irish government embracing its constitutional obligation to proactively support Irish unity”.

Anyway, it’s a proposal for looking forward.

Kearney then listed........

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