Prince Charles

It was a historic day today because Prince Charles and Camilla visited Belfast today and himself shook hands with Catholic politicians Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness and visited a Catholic church. Here's the Belfast Telegraph article. This is a very big deal here. The IRA murdered Charles' uncle, Lord Mountbatten, in 1979 and here he is mending fences with men who were in the IRA. The Queen likewise shook hands with McGuinness in 2012 and apparently ordered her son here to do likewise.

The British would very much like the Catholics and Protestants to get along. They would very much like to see a meaningful democratic government in Stormount, not the artificial "power sharing" arrangement, which has created a powerful and well paid political class, but democracy--not so much. I haven't had time to research this (I'm researching corporate social responsibility at the moment) but I believe the UK government would like Ulster to become part of the Republic of Ireland and be able to wash its hands of this very expensive province. I think all the angry marching Orange orders are meant to take notice that their sovereign is over the past and they ought to join her. David and I are not big royalists, but we have to agree with Her Highness on this one.
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