Northern Ireland is set for another election. The failure to reboot the province’s power-sharing Executive by the deadline last Friday means Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is compelled to call another poll. The current absence of an Executive stems from the Democratic Unionist party’s refusal to join in until substantive progress is made on the Northern Ireland Protocol.
What will an election solve? The frank answer is nothing. Sinn Féin, currently the largest party following an election in May, will be able to present this to nationalists and republicans as yet another chance to give those democracy-denying unionists another mighty kicking on the road to a united Ireland. The DUP and the smaller unionist parties will reheat their calls to rally round the flag in defiance of London, Dublin and Brussels over the Irish Sea Border.
Aside from fans of electoral masochism, nobody will be gratified by what is about to unfold.
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