‘General Election 2017: What You Absolutely Need To Know’ by Donal Lavery

Now I love elections, they are the stuff of high drama and more importantly, the clash of ideas. And by God, is this going to be just that. They make Coronation Street seem Shakespearean, taking the bread and butter issues of the day to your dining room table. This is one of the most important and defining votes you will ever cast in a General Election campaign, for reasons I will elaborate on. Maybe it’s the Asperger’s in me, but once a vote is announced I imagine the Rolling Stones track “Get Off Of My Cloud” blasting and two alternative forces battling it out to shape the landscape in which we live. It’s no longer tweedledum and tweedledee politics, we are living in interesting times.

Having denied just a few weeks ago that there wasn’t going to be an early General Election, the British Prime Minister Theresa May has now engaged her cabinet into deciding that an early test at the polls must happen prior to any serious negotiations with the European Union on the shape of the Brexit deal to emerge. It turns out that the Lady is for turning after all! It won’t surprise many of you that I want to see Sinn Fein make serious gains in Westminster seats here in the North and I also want to see either a Labour government with a working majority or a Labour minority government propped up by SNP support – a confidence and supply arrangement. Such a precedent existed in 1976 after all, when everyone thought the Tories would beat Labour in ’74. And here’s why it all concerns you.

What you have is two distinct visions for the future here in the North, stemming from Left and Right. On the Right, you have the DUP (and that insignificant Unionist Party), who want a ‘hard Brexit’, pulling the North out of the European Court and repatriating maximum decision-making powers to the British Parliament – which will include regular use of the prehistoric ‘Royal Prerogative’ (used to appoint Bishops, go to war, sign treaties, etc – without democratic consent). The Unionist vision is for a low tax, low public expenditure, free market haven for business after the UK leaves the European Union. They also want the strongest possible alliance with the Tory government to undermine legacy investigations into security service killings in the North – which serves the vested interests behind both those parties. Conclusively, they believe in a right wing nation-state, accountable only to what little democracy Britain has (including those great democrats in the House of Lords). As well as British Judges presiding over all assessments of British state crimes in Ireland.

The competing vision, advanced by the Republicans in this election, is really rather different. They are advocating not to be a part of a German Europe but a partnership that includes a European Germany, with greater decision making powers for national parliaments, and citizens therein, as part of their ideology. They feel that the nation-state is obsolete for dealing with the problems which people face in a global world, and that we have to be able to act in conjunction with other people on this planet to stand up against the interests of capital. So it isn’t surprising that they want a ‘special status’ for the North, where the British, Irish and European authorities agree to maintain existing arrangements which have aided the peace agreements there. I should point out that that is more in line with how the electorate actually voted in the referendum, whatever my individual views on the European Union. They also feel that the European Courts have been much more objective in investigating British state killings in Ireland, than Crown Courts imposed on the North. They’re opposed to the EU austerity treaties and they want to see a decentralisation of powers from Brussels to the citizens themselves. Ultimately, they want a European Union which advances an equality agenda in the North and reconciles the two traditions around progressive ideas; and against the forces of darkness. Economically, they are opposed to any further austerity handed down by Westminster and instead want a Keynesian tax and spend agenda to boost demand in the overall economy – as is consistent with their ideology.

These two visions will in part shape the political, social and economic climate in which you and your family lives for every year until Ireland becomes reunified. It’s a decision on which sort of society you want to live in. I’m not going to tell the British people how to vote, as an Irishman, but I would hope a Labour minority government propped up by SNP votes would be on the cards – such an administration would be more constructive in approach to the peace agreements we have here in the North. It would cut the British government free from the shackles of a Unionist straight-jacket pact, which they presently endure. But if Mrs May is reelected with an increased majority, then Irish and Scottish MP’s can bargain on the fact that she won’t need to turn to the DUP for votes in enduring the survival of her government.

I’ll cut to the chase. There isn’t any point in voting for smaller parties or independents at this election. It is a two horse race, with two competing visions for the North. The SDLP demonstrated in the debates around Article 50, that they are unable to sway British parliamentary opinion in a building where they make up not even 1% of the members. A British Parliament will always act according to British interests, and on every occasion the 3 SDLP MP’s have been outflanked and outplayed by what Connolly called the “Orange Aristocracy”. Even if you don’t normally vote Sinn Fein but are worried about Brexit, electing a strong Sinn Fein team would strengthen your hand in upcoming negotiations on our position with Europe. It would increase pressure on the British government to grant a border poll on the basis that a civil legal action could be launched if Scotland gets one and the North does not – particularly if a majority of political representatives in both jurisdictions are in favour of it. They’re asking for no more right than what the British conceded to the Indians, the Americans and to the Kenyans – to self determine who governs the land in which we live and how.

But ultimately, the decision is over to you.