Well, it is the exam season. An examination question framed like this will be familiar to readers of a certain vintage. Responses from Scotland, Wales, and England would make for interesting reading.
In regard to Northern Ireland, attention, for a day or two, will focus on the side-show resignation of former UUP leader, Doug Beattie, MLA. Soon, the electorate in Upper Bann and elsewhere will give their verdict on this.
More importantly, in the light of the state of unionism in Northern Ireland with preferences for maintenance of the union, at least for now, not reflected in election results, it is a question to which political unionism needs a convincing answer.
There is clear evidence that in doing so it must go beyond the defensive rhetoric and aggressive point-scoring that passes for discourse in political arenas at local and regional level; not least the Stormont chamber and scrutiny committees.
The optics are not encouraging with political unionism seemingly groomed to view the world from only one point of view.
Favourable statistics focusing on certain economic sectors in the greater Belfast region, whilst challenging the view that Northern Ireland is an economic basket case, thereby reducing fears over a border poll, it has also empowered a sense of security within hard-line and last-ditch unionists.
This is finding expression in their courting and promoting ideas and actions not dissimilar to those of Reform UK and right -wing lobby groups. These are present in entrenched positioning on migration, Irish language, environment, gender, human rights, religion in education and an admiration for a US President who has delivered the economic and political churn we now endure.
As yet, they have to embrace an equivalent to MAGA but Making Ulster Great (MUG) on a baseball cap would have its downside. It doesn’t however prevent engineering electoral division to prolong and retro-fit binary politics.
When it comes to the TUV and the DUP, both suffer a memory lapse of which a certain former leader of the SNP would be proud, when it comes to flawed decision-making on Brexit and its fallout.
In the case of the DUP you can also include the St Andrew’s Agreement, RHI and the deal that never was on Irish Language.
The NI Protocol and Windsor Framework can be traced directly to the actions of both parties. Had they embraced all the strands of the Good Friday Agreement as intended in 1998 a preferential solution was possible.
In casting Northern Ireland adrift – literally and figuratively- with the imposition of an Irish Sea Trade border, they have learned a thing or two about rewriting the past as they park their failings to direct energy against anything that might lead us from contentious to consensual governance.
Neither has any workable strategy to solve the problems they have created so the option chosen to try and ensure some vestige of electoral survival is to pick holes in and blame everyone else.
Combative – everyone apart from your own party- scrutiny masquerades as forensic and penetrative review. The coercive tone and language, with a few exceptions from individuals who seem out of place in the DUP firmament, suggests otherwise.
The focus seems to be on finding a reason for fresh conflict. And what of the UUP?
It has not taken long for the new leader to learn that it is a party that lives on the edge of turbulence; a broad church wherein it is a challenge to get everyone to sing in harmony. Perhaps the messaging of the words and arrangement of the different parts require a more tranquil update.
African oral tradition cautions that if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.
Observing from a distance it seems that UUP Leader Jon Burrows, MLA has not so much hit the ground running with self-proclaimed evangelical fervour as placed himself in the fast lane; sprinting to reach the front.
Certainly, he appears invigorated and energised; a man on a mission that as yet, needs clarification on policy positions; beyond soundbites, at times close to populist posturing. To borrow from his phraseology “Herein lies the reality.”
It is not enough to table issues and offer criticism of others for failing to address them. You must rise to the challenges you lay down and offer solutions beyond the aspirational rhetoric and repetition of favourable statistics.
It will not be easy in a party that has zig-zagged on policies and electoral tactics for some time; a trait now evident in other branches of unionism. Time will tell if the UUP under new leadership which remains centre-right can break from the tribal herd and de-colonise the soul of unionism to become truly inclusive and diverse.
It requires recognition that the previous is no longer adequate; that restraint is preferable to the dysfunction and disorder that results from blind loyalty to a discredited orthodoxy.
All of Unionism has drifted from the anchorage of the various strands of the Good Friday Agreement but is not moving in any clear direction.
Making Northern Ireland work for all is laudable but the Good Friday Agreement and the core values and principles embedded therein is the only context in which this can happen. Move from this and you embark on an attritional, reactionary and adversarial journey.
Lack of collaborative political delivery and the growing impetus for reform of the structures offers the proof. The Good Friday Agreement is not being lived in the political sphere and bears the hallmark of being abandoned.
Building positive relationships within the 3 strands is being forfeited.
Someone within political unionism needs to respond to the imperative of seeking better possibilities; to return to the path laid out in 1998 and the years afterwards when the late Lord Trimble called for the Good Friday Agreement to be implemented in full.
This will require political unionism to bridge cultural, ethnic and regional divisions; to shape a pluralist Northern Ireland wherein unionism, nationalism and republicanism can speak and work with each other, in civility.
This is the space that a growing number of people. particularly younger generations, occupy. With the approval of big majorities in both jurisdictions on the island, the Agreement was designed for delivery and reform, not rejection.
Ignore this and political unionism will continue like a deeply rooted plant that is not growing but still expects to reach full bloom.
Terry Wright is a former member of the UUP who, in addition to inter- and intra-community activities works independently to promote Civic Unionism.
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