Is one pro-European MEP too much to ask?
There can be no other part of the European Union (EU) which has benefited as much from the organisation as Northern Ireland (NI). Over the past thirty years, the Union has poured billions of pounds into community and infrastructure projects in the North, creating thousands of jobs.
Through the "Peace 1" and "Peace 2" investment programmes, it has supported the process of conflict resolution from the outset. The EU has kept NI as an "Objective 1" area even though the North is technically too rich to be eligible for this extra funding for the EU's poorest regions. I'm sure, on the very rare occasions that our continental brethern think about NI, it's with some vague hope that we can resolve our differences. Certainly there would be no animosity to NI from the rest of Europe.
What's more, there can be few other regions of the EU where further integration makes more sense. If the North were to adopt the Euro, the benefits for both parts of the island would be substantial. This point was reinforced to me last month as I traveled on the bus from Dublin to Belfast. As we got closer to the border, the driver had to sell tickets to oncoming passengers in either euro or sterling, dependent on which currency the traveller had on them.
All the faffing around with two different sets of change delayed our arrival in Belfast by, I would guess, a minute. A piffling amount of time, of course. But it's far from piffling when you stop to consider the thousands of other inefficiencies, both large and small, which occur every single day that the currency partition continues. Adopting the Euro in the six northern counties would eliminate these inefficiencies at a stroke. For a small island to have two different currencies is an absurdity, maybe even a disgrace.
With all the benefits of EU investment, and the potential benefits of further integration, you'd think that the people of NI would be the most enthusiastic supporters of the European project. Not a bit of it. Rather than being grateful for the huge injection of cash into our moribund economy, we take it as if it were ours by right. There is no sense of gratitude for all that we are given. The EU (and by that I mean, in effect, the German taxpayer) showers us with money and asks for nothing in return. If there are any of my fellow NI-ers reading this, may I suggest that next time you meet a German, rather than making some clumsy John Cleese joke, you should simply shake them by the hand and say "Danke".
In June's election for the European Parliament, the voters of NI may return three Euro-sceptic MEPs for the first time. In the past the anti-EU DUP and UUP and the pro-EU SDLP have represented the North in Strasbourg. The DUP and UUP look set to hold their seats but, with the retirement of John Hume, the SDLP's seat could go to Barbre de Brun of Euro-sceptic Sinn Fein.
Of course, the campaign for the European parliament in Northern Irealnd will have everything to do with domestic politics and nothing to do with European matters. In this respect the North is no different to the South or Britain. If the SDLP does lose its seat it will be because of a shift in nationalist opinion rather than an increase in Euro-scepticism.
But still, what a shame it would be if NI couldn't manage to elect even one pro-European MEP. The SDLP is easily the most pro-European party in Britain and Ireland. From its inception in 1970, the party has embraced the EU both as an example of how people who once fought each other can work together, and as a way of ending some of the economic divisions caused by the border.
In his twenty-five years in Strasbourg, John Hume has brought huge amounts of investment and employment to the North, to the benefit of both communities. He has consistently portrayed our home (call it what you like) in a positive way. He is a figure of huge international standing who gives us all a good image abroad. Even those who don't share his politics must admit that he is a principled and dedicated man.
Unfortunately ill health has forced him to step down at this election. The SDLP"s candidate in the upcoming poll will be Martin Morgan, the current mayor of Belfast. Of course, Morgan is no Hume - who is? But he is a young and articulate politician who would work well on a grander stage than that provided by Belfast City Hall.
He may not get the chance. The shift in nationalist opinion may see Barbre de Brun elected as Sinn fein's first MEP. De Brun's last job was making a pig's ear of the North's hospitals in her role as Health Minister in the now suspended powersharing government. She was selected by her party before Hume made the decision not to seek re-election. Such is Hume's personal appeal that Sinn fein knew they couldn't defeat him. With this in mind, there weren't many of the party's high profile figures who were interested in running. In other words de Brun, like a good soldier, volunteered to lose.
So, what's in store should de Brun rather than Morgan be elected to represent northern nationalism in Strasbourg? More of Sinn Fein's cheap gesture politics no doubt, always aimed at securing headlines rather than real political progress. And one more anti-EU representative from NI. The DUP and UUP are both anti-Euro from a sense of old-school British nationalism, a sort of 1950s mentality where the sun never sets on the Empire. This is not exactly surprising. What is surprising though, is that Sinn Fein, those ardent republicans, were until very recently, also in favour of NI retaining the Queen's shilling. That is, they were in favour of the continuing currency partition of Ireland. What would Wolf Tone have made of that?
Sinn Fein's Euro-scepticism is of course of a different flavour to that of the two unionist parties. Sinn Fein are anti-EU from a pseudo-leftist position, they are the kind of people who like to describe the EU as a "capitalist club". Nevertheless the party has recently warmed to the Euro though, Sinn Fein being Sinn Fein, the only certainty on their future policy is that it will change again.
In the end the people will have their say. If NI elects three anti-EU MEPs then so be it. But can't we, who have benefited so much form the EU, manage to elect one MEP who views the European project as an opportunity rather than a threat? Can't we, who would benefit the most from further integration, have at least one representative who doesn't think in a narrow, tribalistic way?
I hope we can, I fear we can't.