Everything has changed and nothing must change. That is the strange and serious paradox delivered by the Brexit referendum result.
The English (and Welsh) people have chosen to authorise a seismic shift in their constitutional status. The Brexiteers won a victory for a vision that embraces isolation. They have attempted to lock the door on modernity through the bogeyman proxy of the EU. Knowingly or not, the English electorate has opted to change everything.
No such authority was given in Northern Ireland, where 56 per cent of voters opted to stay loyal to the ideals of the European Union.
We have known and understood the positive impact of Europe. We have known and experienced the example of its architecture and its advocacy for co-operation and peace. We opted to stay true to that vision. We have not given any consent to change it. Unionists and nationalists alike backed that verdict.
The paradox therefore persists. The change chosen by the English people was not chosen by the Irish people. Nor was it chosen by the Scottish. The simplicity of those facts point to one reality: their future cannot now be our future.
In response to the reverberating consequences of this referendum, the SDLP is determined to provide clear- headed and calm leadership. The spiralling volatility of this period must be met with a strong and sure-footed determination to defend and protect the Irish national interest.
Every parliamentary and diplomatic tool must now be used to maintain the North’s membership of the EU. What was hard-won should not now be meekly sacrificed. What we have, we must hold.
No authority
In the Assembly, this means the British government and its new prime minister are immediately confronted with the expressed will of the people of
Northern Ireland
to remain in Europe. Our First Minister and Deputy First Minister have no democratic authority to co-operate with any article 50 negotiations that remove our status within the European Union.
To do so would fundamentally undermine, not only the referendum result, but every agreement stretching back to 1998. Our political structures were shaped in the context of European membership. Ripping that context apart should not be in the gift of Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage.
Whether it is through the Danish model of selective territorial membership or via another creative exemption, every legal and logistical avenue must now be explored in an attempt to retain our status within Europe.
Alongside this response in the Assembly, there must also come a collective response from political parties across Ireland. This must be led by the Irish Government.
Kenny’s influence
The Taoiseach is now uniquely placed to influence Ireland’s relationship, North and South, with the EU. As a continuing member state, Ireland will have huge influence in this upcoming negotiation. Enda Kenny therefore has a huge responsibility to weigh in on behalf of people in the North. Multiplying numbers of Irish passport holders here need him to be a powerful voice on their behalf.
Immediately, and most importantly, that advocacy must guarantee no return to a physical border across this island. A clear objective in the coming negotiations must be to ensure that any Border is only operational around the island of Ireland and not across it. That is the logical outcome of the Brexit vote, and it is the only logical outcome that can be practically enforced.
I will be calling for the establishment of an all-party forum for political parties North and South to consider the issues and implications arising from the referendum result – not least in terms of helping develop optimum coherence and consensus on how to minimise the adverse economic fallout and to ensure growth across the island.
The post-Brexit reality must ensure the full and fast integration of economic interests across Ireland. The go-slow agenda of the North-South bodies must end. This is now driven as much by necessity as it is by political ideology.
Uncertainty will pervade the weeks and months ahead. The kaleidoscope has been shaken and the many moving parts of economics, politics and personality will not come to rest for some considerable time. We cannot afford to be mesmerised by the intensity of unfolding events.
This is not a done deal. Ireland must not allow itself to accept an inevitability forced upon us by others. We must instead seek to shape the new Ireland before us. This island still belongs in Europe.
Colum Eastwood is the leader of the SDLP