NI Assembly Elections - A rerun of the GFA referendum?

The date is getting pushed further and further out all the time. Shows a complete lack of confidence.

Every passing year increases the reunification vote. Demographics dude. It'd likely scrape past in 2/3 years, much more solidly in 7/8. That's infinitely preferable.

Well, as much as I am in support of the Protocol, the question still remains over the extent to which it will (1) return NI’s economy to where it would have been by now if Brexit never happened and (2) whether it will actually significantly pass that economic position. The UK has a distinct problem here in that, while NI can f**k right off in their eyes, Scotland is a different matter entirely. They have a careful balancing act to play to avoid a situation where any significant success NI might have under the Protocol causes huge agitation for similar treatment for anti-Brexit Scotland or fuel the independence movement there.

NI’s political leaders and officials will not have direct consultation with the EU and so the ability of NI itself to influence or have any control over how the laws and regulations around the Protocol develop is stunted. Westminster will be in the driving seat there and they are not going to tolerate a gleeful advertisement for EU membership within their own borders or risk the ire of NI’s effective continued membership being seen as unfair treatment.

The Protocol is, after all, designed to be a compromise to uphold the GFA, and this compromise is beneficial to NI in at least hopefully mitigating the damage of Brexit and then maybe succeeding even more than that. But the Protocol is certainly not intended to be an unconditional gift of love by Westminster, and it will not be treated as such.

Demographics haven't worked. Even Francie has had to admit that the nationalist vote is down from the last election.

Just curious - are Sinn Féin 100% behind the current protocol arrangements??

I've heard SF rubbish the DUP for not accepting 'the protocol' but that's a bit different than being fully behind it.

Be great for NI as an entity if it is implemented fully, will put NI business in a strong place.

Perhaps not so good for the Republic in some ways, could be seen to give NI a competitive advantage.

But my question is does SF back the current protocol to the hilt?

I seen on twitter that BBC are saying the alliance party is unionist to make the union bigger, thats not true aren't they like republican as well

No they arent aligned either way and are designated as "other" although it doesnt stope idiots on the BBC or members of either side claiming they are or they arent to benefit whatever the days political goals are.

The Scots might not necessarily grumble to get the exact same thing as the Protocol, but the ignoring of Scotland’s pro-EU vote combined with NI getting “special treatment” only fuels the fire of Scottish Nationalists by pointing to NI’s potential success as evidence of Scotland’s mistreatment.

The Protocol, so far anyway, only really has an effect on physical industry like manufacturing (it doesn’t really do much for non physical services)— which for an investor is a big investment into plants and machinery. The problem for a new Intel therefore is certainty in the long term. NI having the “best of both worlds” is one of those things that looks good on paper, but the inconvenient truth will also be that NI has little ultimate control of its own on what will be achievable under the Protocol — as Stormont will not be calling the shots at the highest level.

The competitiveness of NI companies is already being affected within the internal British market by additional costs resulting from the Protocol while the Consumer Council of Northern Ireland has already estimated that at least 200 British companies have ceased sending products to NI since 2021. So as an already small and isolated economy, NI’s access to the market of 67 odd million population has been made more difficult, not less, which explains why NI exports to the Republic grew enormously by 65% (and 54% from the Republic to NI) in 2020. What that tells you is that there is already a gravitation and further integration of supply chains between North and a South.

That’s a pretty limited vision for what entails progress in NI though, but let’s roll with it:

Why stick your fingers in the eyes of people who want to protect and preserve something as harmless as the Irish language via legislation?