THE DECISION to unseat a Sinn Feiner who won Mid-Ulster
at the election has been, received with satisfaction, I imagine, by Sinn Fein. This party—if so incongruous a mixture of idealists, thugs and informers deserves the name—contested the general election with one purpose only in mind : to publicise the fact that a majority of voters in the constituency disliked being in the United Kingdom so much that they were pre- pared to vote even for Sinn Fein candidates. The more elections there are in the constituency, consequently. the better the publicity. A government which is engaged in seeking a demo- cratic settlement in Cyprus should try to keep quiet about the Northern Ireland nationalists, for there is not, and never has been, any justification for preventing them from joining with the South. The excuse given for the boundary when it was drawn was that Northern Ireland must be made large enough to form a viable administrative entity; but experience has shown that it would be more viable without the predominantly nationalist districts, which have given Stormont nothing but worry and expense. The Irish case against partition, too. would be much less strong if the border was redrawn. (For that very reason the Southern Irish would not say thank you for an offer to hand the districts over, if the North was sensible enough to make such an offer, which it is not.) At the moment. the less said about the subject the better, from Westminster's point of view. It is an indefensible position, and could, if carelessly handled, become a humiliating one. *
Previous page
