The Boundary Commission has just published its proposals on a revised set of constituencies for Northern Ireland. The review has been conducted in line with the Conservative government’s manifesto pledge to reduce the number of MPs at Westminster from 650 to 600. As part of the shake-up Northern Ireland will lose one of its 18 constituencies. But, of course, a constituency doesn’t just disappear. Getting rid of one isn’t like losing a room by knocking down a partition wall. It’s like knocking down all the walls and then rebuilding them (bar one) to make sure every room is the same size.

In Northern Ireland, we’re still a society with plenty of walls to divide us – both metaphorically and, unfortunately, physically. Our politics remain dominated by the unionist-nationalist divide, and we still tend to live in areas dominated by one community or the other. As predictably as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, we take for granted that some constituencies are unfailingly ‘green’ and others unfailingly ‘orange’. A nationalist candidate won’t have a hope in East Belfast or Lagan Valley, and a unionist would have more chance of winning the lottery than a seat in West Belfast or Foyle.

And so, rather than starting afresh with a new map with new lines, the old political landscape simply gets cut and paste onto the new one. The instinctive question to ask is: which constituencies will be nationalist, and which ones will be unionist? It’s all very deterministic. Indeed, the News Letter’s headline on the story warned that the review “may put unionist seats at risk.” The Belfast Telegraph predicted a “dogfight between high profile nationalist and unionist politicians,” and the Irish News forecast a “unionist hullabaloo” over the proposals. But amidst the predictability of Northern Ireland politics, the boundary review throws up a number of genuine uncertainties. The new constituencies of Belfast North West and Glenshane, for example, may be more ‘mixed’ than their predecessors.

Unfortunately, rather than decrease the importance of the unionist-nationalist divide, these more ‘mixed’ constituencies might actually increase it. Rather than risk losing the unionist seat of Belfast North, for example, the DUP and Ulster Unionists already look set to negotiate a ‘unionist unity’ candidate for the next Westminster election. They might do likewise elsewhere.

To be fair, there is perhaps something more to this than the nationalist-unionist divide. Since Sinn Féin refuses to take its seats at Westminster, it could reasonably be argued that in seats where a ‘unionist unity’ candidate could win against the party, the contest is not simply about a sectarian headcount but rather offering voters the choice between having representation in Parliament and not having representation in Parliament.

In practice, however, the logic of unionist unity candidates is precisely the continued contestation of elections along green-orange lines to the detriment of all other political issues. After all, Northern Ireland’s continued place in the UK won’t be decided by whether or not you have a unionist MP, but the day-to-day policies pursued by the government of the UK will be determined by the broader beliefs of the representatives we send to Westminster. When we elect MPs we are not voting on whether or not to stay in the UK. We are voting on how the UK will be governed.

The only way in which Northern Ireland’s place in the UK could change is if a majority of voters want it to change in a referendum. As Westminster decides on matters of taxation, welfare, immigration and foreign policy, we could help to break down our traditional divisions of identity by voting for candidates based on their views about day-to-day policies – not simply candidates who come from a particular background. When the Boundary Commission drew up its new recommendations, it was specifically prohibited by law from taking into consideration the unionist and nationalist composition of any proposed constituencies. Ironically, judging by media commentary and the reaction of local political parties to their proposals, it may still take some time before politics in Northern Ireland is seen through any other lens.