WHAT OUR NEW FREEDOM WILL MEAN
Lest we lose sight of the bigger picture, intradependence brings the freedom for NI to act independently. We will become free to chart our own course as we acquire the right to self determination.
In practical terms this means, for example, we can set our own rate of Corporation Tax - not a meaningful issue to the vast majority of people, but of overwhelming significance to the future prosperity of everyone in NI.
More than any other factor the rate of Corporation Tax of a country determines its level of attractiveness to investors. It sets the percentage of profit a business is allowed to make after tax. The lower the rate, the higher the profit to be made, the greater the inflow of inward investment.
As part of the UK, NI is obliged to apply the UK rate – 19%, rising to 25% in 2023. Even though NI has the weakest economy in the UK it is unable to offer a competitive rate to investors. The RoI has a rate of 12.5%. On its own, NI can match or better this.
An intradependent NI, already attractive as a member of the EU, will be in a strong position to set a rate that will win much needed industrial transfers from GB of companies wanting to stay in the Single Market and to enjoy improved profitability at the same time. If they transfer across the English Channel rather than the Irish Sea, they will pay rates as high as 35%.
Consumer Choice Democracy will secure the future for NI tax payers at the personal level. At the corporate level, Intradependence will transform NI into an economic powerhouse.
OUR LONG TERM FUTURE
Post Brexit, having discovered they can no longer rely on the British Government as their backstop, Unionists are left to develop a new vision for Unionism and forge a new future for the unionist population.
Republicans are equally lost. They need to find an escape route from the certainty of a disunited Ireland if they continue with their current demands. Such disunity would be a profound betrayal of the United Ireland they proclaim and a waste of aspirations of all Irish people for a better life.
So, unless it falls to Intradependents to do the job for them, it will fall to Unionists and Republicans to do a deal whereby Unionists agree to NI becoming a member of the Commonwealth - leaving the UK - and Republicans agree to dropping their demand for a (dis) United Ireland. Furthermore, that deal requires them both agreeing to create a united island strengthened by EU-backed inward investment to build an all-island economy.
Now that we can see what has to happen let our politicians put it to the people on this island, north, south, east and west - to give them their chance to get behind it.
There is no political gain to be had from continuing any unionist/ protestant, nationalist/catholic divide. The only interest for us in NI, and for this island as a whole, is our common interest in seeing our children thrive.
"Nuala with the Hula" photo by Janet Keenan
The Beacon of Hope, Queens Bridge, Belfast