Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
It’s reckless to ignore talk on uniting Ireland
Robinson urges supporters to ‘extol’ the benefits of UK
ELECTION Peter Robinson joins DUP team at 2017 count
A DUP MP has said unionists have a “responsibility to engage” in conversations about Irish unity.
East Belfast representative Gavin Robinson added it would be a “most reckless approach” not to do so.
He insisted he does not see a border poll “as an inevitability at all”, but that the broader unionist family must “extol” the benefits of the Union.
His comments to Talkback echoed those of former DUP leader Peter Robinson who was castigated by many in 2018 when he told the Macgill Summer School in Donegal that unionists should prepare for the eventuality.
He said at the time: “I don’t expect my own house to burn down but I still insure it because it could happen.”
Yesterday, the East Belfast MP added it is “absolutely right that as unionists [we should] consider these things thoughtfully, that we should, first and foremost, engage in these things, rather than discussions around a border poll”.
He said there should be “thoughtful discussions about not only assuring ourselves about our place within the union, but to extoll the benefits to others within our society”, and added unionists need to ask “how do we maturely and positively reflect those benefits and solidify and cement those foundations that we have”.
Mr Robinson told the programme: “It is important those of us who believe in the Union, and who value the relationship between the four nations that make up the great union, that we think about these things, talk about these things, engage in thoughtful discussions with one another.
“Unionism is often described as being disparate at times, fractious at times. There are always elements within unionism who take a different view.
“So let’s have those discussions amongst us, let’s engage with one another. Let’s build that strength of civic unionism that I think has been lacking from public discourse over many years.
“Many people who believe in the union, who would never wish to see the end of the union, who benefit from the union, but who don’t talk about it, who aren’t out there actively campaigning as unionists.
“How do we engage with those people to say what we have is important?
“Let’s be proud of the union that we have and, if anything in this centenary year, I know that many of those discussions are taking place already.”
The MP said that following Brexit some nationalists “mischieveously talk about a united Ireland like it is a foregone conclusion”.
But he added he was “not concerned about losing support for the union or concerned about the conditions being satisfied where a border poll would come about”. Mr Robinson said: “To sit back and do nothing is never an effective strategy on any matter.”
Let’s build that strength of civic unionism that has been lacking from public discourse GAVIN ROBINSON YESTERDAY ON BBC RADIO ULSTER TALKBACK