Gareth Brown’s considered piece on Northern Slant entitled ‘If you’re losing the game, change the game altogether’ strikes a concordant note for this writer. His analysis of the facts in terms of the combined vote of DUP & Sinn Féin not reflecting the majority of the electorate and the inability of the centre ground to break free from political miasma is spot on.

I agree with him that there would be distinct merit in examining the aspirations that might motivate previous non-voters to the ballot box – they have the potential to change politics in Northern Ireland for the good and it is a message that needs to be articulated and driven home constantly. It is a message not in the interests of Unionist and Nationalist parties who certainly have no wish to hear or promote such a view, which may diminish their dominance.

He then turns to the centre ground parties such as UUP, SDLP and Alliance, suggesting that they be brave as regards the primacy of such matters as the economy, health, education, infrastructure etc. with the assurance of the constitutional guarantee embodied in the Good Friday Agreement. Throw in a charismatic leader and the ingredients are surely there for change?

Whilst what is contained in Gareth Brown’s article is right, it is not new. But it does need to be said again and again.

His solution is, however, overly simplistic.

I believe there needs to be radical ‘outside of the box’ rethinking about democracy which will likely make uncomfortable reading for the party political establishment and other groups alike.

My thoughts and comments are in relation to the political impasse in Northern Ireland, but equally they have validity across the whole western ‘democratic’ world caught up in the pursuit of self and the degradation of freedom of speech, a dichotomous self-perpetuating cyclone of democratic self-destruction.

What has gone wrong with democracy?

In Northern Ireland, we have become consumed in the never ceasing rhetoric of equality, an Irish Language Act, respect, abortion, same sex marriage, the Union, Brexit and a United Ireland. Issues that are emotive, individually and collectively, and which will never all be agreed in one room because they are innately irreconcilable.

It seems we have forgotten how to accept that people are different from ourselves; that other people set their moral and personal standards against benchmarks that can never ever be agreed in unanimity. This is simply the reality of humanity. It is how we manage these irreconcilable differences, in peace, that places the greatest demands upon our intellects and concerns for our neighbours and ourselves alike.

As a non-unionist Christian living in Northern Ireland, I find myself increasingly ostracised from the political set-up as no one party currently meets my life expectations without compromising those matters of faith which are central to my being and which to do so, I believe, would have eternal consequences. I accept that those who do not share my faith values will not and cannot comprehend this, though my prayer would always be that one day they would. Just as someone from the same-sex marriage lobby will believe passionately about their cause, so too do I believe passionately in a faith that sustains me day after day. These passions are important.

We live in the context of an increasingly multicultural and secular society underpinned by the equality agenda and the propensity of society to be shepherded in blissful ignorance along the equality road and these latter aspects, in my view, have supplanted true democracy.

Let me pose the question: at what point does equality become inequality? Is equality the demise of democracy and freedom?

What exactly do we mean by equality? The word has been proverbially ‘stuffed down our throats’ so often, so copiously that we can no longer discern what we are consuming. Who or what can rescue us from this malaise, this communal reverie that threatens to take us places we haven’t the wit to perceive? This writer is pretty tired of the political classes rushing to treat society, the patient, with this dodgy elixir ‘equality’ without diagnosing the patient first. Can we really trust clinicians who have no qualifications?

In essence what we have is an equality agenda that is anything but and is of itself an attack on freedom and democracy and one cannot but help feel that we have just passed the equality-inequality tipping point.

That our political parties have largely signed up to the equality agenda and have embedded it by the politicisation of moral matters as party policy, in some cases imposing sanction against their own elected representatives for whom faith issues are important where they have failed to tow the party line, should be a matter of huge concern. Parties such as Alliance, SDLP, Sinn Féin and the Green Party have active LGBT branches promoting the interests not only of those groups but allowing them to drive forward overall party policy. In the interests of equality, I wonder what those parties’ responses would be to the establishment of active Christian branches with the same rights to influence policy.

This writer believes that our political classes have made a fundamental error in adopting moral issues as party policy. Paradoxically, the DUP politicisation of religious doctrine by the cynical use of Petitions of Concern is an error of similar proportion.

Political parties, not exclusively in Northern Ireland, have created rods for their own backs. They may not be able to unburden themselves.

As a society I believe it is time to stop and reflect upon what we have created either by participation or acquiescence in relation to equality and to examine exactly what our collective future hopes, dreams and aspirations in relation to democracy really mean.

Returning to Gareth Brown’s article and as an advocate of principled pluralism I would encourage our political parties to revisit the matter of moral matters being politicised into party policy. These are matters that, at the end of the day, should be down to personal conscience and elected members and others should be free to exercise their votes accordingly without reproach or fear of sanction. The politicisation of moral issues is a form of totalitarianism, paradoxically promoted by liberals, for whom I thought totalitarianism was anathema. As for the Unionist parties who hide behind petitions of concern, stand out in the open and vote as conscience dictates.

We need to trust democracy.

No matter our political or religious views, acceptance of the democratic outcome is fundamental. If we can accept this then much of the moral and nationalistic matters become less of an impediment to good society and the integrity of all is sustained.

The time has surely come for the mobilisation of true democrats, a movement of people for whom the important matters are, as Gareth Brown highlights, the economy, health, education and infrastructure, with moral and national identity subject only to free personal conscience. Let’s trust democracy!