An Unprejudiced Observation

One of the essentials of a working life alone in a vehicle is the radio.  Sometimes, I admit, it gets too much and I have to hit the off button for a little silent therapy, but it's not long before I switch on again - maybe tuned to a different programme for a change.

I usually catch the Radio 4 news at least once in a day, although sometimes the political interviews are a bit frustrating, with two opposing speakers talking across each other, and the presenter trying frantically to maintain order.

Today is polling day, and yesterday's lunchtime news brought to the fore something that has bugged me for a while.  The presenter referred to the elections for the Scottish Parliament and for the Assemblies in Wales and Northern Ireland.  There then followed an update on the campaigns in Scotland, and another on those in Wales.  At this point, looking at the clock, I said to myself, 'I bet they don't visit Northern Ireland.'  And I was right!  No sooner had contact been lost with the Welsh correspondent, than Martha Kearney introduced the next topic, the death of Osama Bin Laden.  Significant though this latter might be, the incident prompted an outburst of frustration from me that I feel I have to echo here.

The people of Northern Ireland - at least the Unionist majority - have expressed consistently over the last century and more that they wish to remain part of this United Kingdom.  It clearly has to be for their own benefit, I have decided, rather than out of response to any consideration coming from this side of the North Channel.  I have often heard, (usually through listening to RTÉ) of something that's taking place in Northern Ireland that fails to reach the UK news bulletins, although the same thing happening in Scotland or Wales would merit at the very least a couple of minutes and probably a report from a local correspondent as well.

This election campaign is just one more example of the comparative neglect at Union level of a community that, despite its troubled - and, in terms of human lives, costly - recent history, is still a part of our Kingdom.  I often think that they get better service from the other side of the border in the Republic than they do from their 'fellow' countrymen over here.