The only surprising thing about the decline in the nationalist vote during the assembly election was that anyone was surprised by it. New nationalism, as this column has called it, is a bit like Tony Blair's New Labour, which was dressed-up conservatism. New nationalism (also inspired by Tony Blair) is now apparently seen by an increasing number of the nationalist electorate as just dressed-up unionism. By supporting the political conditions for peace in 1998, Irish nationalists accepted the legitimacy of what had been traditionally called the British presence in Ireland. Led by the SDL[...]









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