EDITORIAL: Nothing changes unless everything changes - it's past time for Irish unity and Stormont can only be a stepping stone towards that
During a visit to Derry this week Michelle O’Neill spoke of how constitutional change in the long term was the only way to take back control on policy decisions and budgeting decisions. And looking at the fiscal straits the north finds itself in, it would be hard to argue otherwise.
The north west of Ireland is a region full of ambition and has the talent to drive that ambition, but it has never been given a fair shot or received what other regions were freely given. History tells us we would be foolish to rely on the grace of an English parliament to change that.
The inadequate budget allocated to the Executive is indicative of how remote and generally out of touch the British government is.
Successive British governments have upheld this status quo. Attempts to explain the unique circumstances here, particularly in the north west – a history of neglect and discrimination, the severe lack of infrastructure, a city, region and people emerging from decades of conflict, high levels of deprivation, poverty, disability and lower levels of investment and employment opportunities – have far too often fallen on deaf ears.
It was these issues and others that united people behind the banner of Civil Rights and it is these same issues which have never been fully rectified. Arguably they never will by a parliament with no real track record of holding itself and the state it governs to account in terms of the responsibilities it has and the role it has played in creating these conditions.
A lot has changed for the better here. But a lot has stayed the same, and the transformative leap can only really happen when, as the First Minister pointed out, powers are wrestled back from London.