Red Hand is the only shared symbol we have.  And the roundabout would be great for handbrake turns

Do you consider that Unionism and Nationalism both are honourable and sincerely-held positions, equally worthy of respect?  Take a bow if you do.  I've met very few people who genuinely believe that.  At best, they'll pay lip-service to the notion of equality of aspiration, while secretly being (even slightly) contemptuous about one side or the other.   

The trick is to find a structure which accommodates Irish-ness and British-ness without degenerating into the usual winners and losers narrative.  Predictably, there has been no creative thinking about this at all.  Ever.  And the winners and losers game continues to this day.  

Current, trendy, thinking is that, for peace to be cemented, far from respecting both traditions, the Irish and British traditions in the North both should be phased out, and supplanted by a new, "third way" identity.  That is a form of cancel culture; and arises out of a failure of imagination.  I dislike the dishonest failure to come clean on the cancel reality behind the proposal; and I resent the patronising assumption that both sides are ill-informed extremists.  We're not. The majority of DUP and SF voters are ordinary, everyday people with moderate, and rather boring, views on many social and economic issues.  

The North should be dealt with as follows:

1. Merge Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan with the other 6 counties into an officially-recognised 9 county Ulster. That way, "we" gain territory, keeping the Unionists happy; and also keeps the Nationalists happy, as it irks us to hear the North frequently described by Unionists as "Ulster", when, to our minds, it's merely two thirds of Ulster.

2. Ulster gets a new red hand flag.  It's a vibrant logo, with a colourful mythic history - and it resonates with both main communities.  Amazingly, in a place where, culturally, we share next to nothing (apart from, for people my age, a shared reverence for Georgie Best, Joey Dunlop, the Undertones, Van Morrison* and SLF), this is a uniquely inclusive logo.  It's shared by both communities e.g., the Tyrone GAA team (and several other GAA Ulster counties) and by Loyalism (e.g., the Red Hand Commandos) - and it avoids the plasticky contrivances of something designed by an anaemic PR committee.

[*Before Van lost the plot about covid, that is ...]

3. Ulster gets a unique, Venn diagram constitution, whereby the new Ulster becomes a federal region of both the South and of GB, with full dual citizenship rights for all and a local parliament at Stormont.  Defence is handled jointly by GB and Ireland through NATO, with a local police force to deal with internal crime.  GB and the South split the tax take and fund public services on a 50:50 basis for a set period of say 30 years.  Full access to GB and EU markets, and a local government led premium manufacturing and global exports push.  After 30 years, depending on economic progress, partial fiscal devolution and funding one third GB, one third South and one third Ulster taxpayer generated.  Constitutional bars on both a United Ireland and on British rule.  

4.  Ideally, this would be supplemented with a full federal structure on the island.  Full regional parliaments at Cork and Galway also.  The South is askew.  The Dublin-centric thinking is out of control.  The majority of all new Irish jobs are in Dublin.  The other 24 Southern counties (Donegal has been de facto abandoned already) now are mere feeder counties to the Dublin black hole.  Covid's ill-wind role in shining a light on our absurd, last-century obsession with offices may of course assist in re-balancing this irrational metropolitan bias.  

5. A federal structure would also quell Unionist fears about " thin end of the wedge" / "stepping stones" to a United Ireland.  The key point about the Venn diagram structure is that it is the destination.  There is no traditional United Ireland.  Nor is there sole British authority.  Both are formally off the table, permanently.  Incredibly, to this day, the only settlement narrative in town is binary - British rule versus United Ireland - and nothing in between.  This makes little sense.  With a split population, how is either solution ever going to work for the "losing" side?  People dislike compromises, but I feel my compromise is more radical and more interesting that the traditional, tired approaches.  And the new Ulster would get more loot as well.  It'd be in a privileged position for world trade - a real gateway hub.  We’d celebrate 1916 and the 12th.  

All my life, we've been in suspended animation.  I've been governed all my life by patronising, ill-informed, unimaginative outsiders, people locked into outmoded ways of thinking.  People who see us as malcontents in need of continual placating; a dreary problem to be solved.  People who, deep down, think that we need looking after.  It's often struck me how many talented and ambitious Nordies I've met abroad.  My idea is one that gives security to both identities, permanently.  Until that happens, local political culture by design is frozen in perpetual adolescence, with each tribe continually looking over their respective shoulders at the “adults” in London and Dublin, while spending most of their time name calling, squabbling and point scoring.  There is a continuing existential hope for Nationalists, and a continuing existential dread for Unionists. That hope, and that dread; both paralyse.  

The irony of the North, one rarely perceived by outsiders, is that nothing is quite what it seems.  Unionists are not as resistant to change as they let on.  Nationalists are not as eager for change as they let on.

Publicly though, it's easier to take refuge inside our traditional positions.  It's comfortable.  All your thinking has already been done for you; and, since nothing ever changes, you probably will never have to do anything constructive anyway.