What Should Be Done With Northern Ireland ? Any Ideas ?

[modeller]

they should be divoiced fro the uk

[Old_Geezer]

It should remain as it is until the people request otherwise.

[grumpy01]

Spot on O.G..To do anything else would be letting down all those who died in the troubles.

[emmie]

no they shouldn't, i have no answer as such about the backstop but we have a duty to NI, and they should say when, if they want to split.

[CrapAtCryptics]

I think each half of Ireland should be offered a referendum as to whether they should reunite - you cant do an overall one because Southern Irelands population is much bigger than the North. You could also include a question asking, if they reunite, whether they wish to be with the EU or the Uk.

[Rockrose]

No we should not be divorced from the uk!

[SparklyKid]

Been nothing but trouble for hundreds of years, give it back and make Ireland one country.

[Rockrose]

England would miss the income from our taxes.

[Kromovaracun]

Why on earth should they be 'divorced'?

[Togo]

//England would miss the income from our taxes.//

More nonsense.

""Northern Ireland has more of the identifiable spending per head than Scotland and Wales, receiving 21% more than the UK as a whole.
Next in line comes Scotland, which is 16% above the average and Wales at 10% above. England spends 3% per head below the overall UK figure.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has recently published experimental statistics on the distribution of public spending throughout the UK, which also found that Northern Ireland had the highest per person funding.""

[ichkeria]

All this sudden concern about N Ireland because England wants to declare UDI from Europe : almost comical.
Like a couple who’ve forgotten they built an extension to their house and now realise they can’t sell it.
Tho not as bad as the nonsense from the DUP and others about the backstop “betraying”N Ireland.
I suspect the majority of people NI actually are less worked up about it than anyone else. Sinn Fein, the SDLP, Alliance and the Green Party have issued a joint statement supporting it! And collectively they probably speak for the greater number of voters.
Of course it fecks up JRM’s dreams of a new empire so that’s not so good :-)

[mushroom25]

//Sinn Fein, the SDLP, Alliance and the Green Party have issued a joint statement supporting it! And collectively they probably speak for the greater number of voters. //

none of the above parties represent unionism - since on average the unionist vote numbers 50% at recent elections, the "greater number" represented by the others is likely to be a rather small comparator.

[ichkeria]

I don’t think “unionism” will be too chuffed at the thought that a few Brexiters would see them cast adrift just to solve an awkward problem. That is of course not going to happen but amusing to reflect on

[emmie]

they have every right to feel part of the Union.

[Guilbert53]

>>Been nothing but trouble for hundreds of years, give it back and make Ireland one country.

I think if you "gave it back" we could expect more trouble.

Much of the trouble in the past came from the Catholic IRA who wanted the country reunited.

But most of the Protestant people in NI want to stay part of the UK.

So if we tried to "give it back" we would have Protestant terrorists planting bombs rather than Catholic terrorists.

It could also be argued that it has been "trouble for hundreds of years" because England has treated the country and the people VERY badly.

And it was England's decision to split the country in two (which never works - Cyprus, India etc) mainly because we wanted to keep the industrial North of Ireland (which made lots of money) but let go of the rural South.

[sunny-dave]

The South do not actually want the North - either from a political or economic perspective.

The dream of a United Ireland is very alluring (and one to which politicians in the South are careful to adhere) - but they don't want the potential violence from disaffected Unionists and they certainly couldn't afford to replicate the flow of cash into NI to keep the non-ironers in the luxury to which they've been accustomed under English subsidy.

[Marshwarble]

The ignorance of people here. The UK stands for the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland. As the constitution stands at the moment they can't be "divorced" from the UK and anyway any divorce must be about necessity.

[ichkeria]

Well said

[Zacs-Master]

Possibilities from the horses mouth (rather than some of the naive ill informed ramblings seen on here);
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/brexit-or-ukexit-twelve-predictions-about-northern-ireland-s-future-1.3457324

[ichkeria]

Recent polls show that rightly or wrongly most people in NI think that a hard border is a greater threat to the union than the “backstop”

[Old_Geezer]

They should try to persuade the RoI that creating one isn't in anyone's interest then.