On August 27th, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham was posed with the question of whether or not he will be motioning for an Irish unity referendum to which he replied with blunt rejection — claiming it to be something that will only serve as yet another point of division throughout the occupied Six Counties and, indeed, England.
Members, supporters and representatives of Sinn Fein would have you believe that the Prime Minister is simply going against the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. After all, who could have ever thought the nation responsible for heinous crimes globally, which made its fortune on the exploitation of different peoples, would propose an agreement they will happily disregard if convenient? So, even if that is the case, I don't see the relevance. Anyone with any sense or knowledge on how the British government operates, by now, knows well enough that this exactly the predicament they hoped to force the Irish people into — that the British government can postpone Irish unity for as little or as long as they like, and there's nothing our politicians or the ordinary Irish people can do about it except appeal to the British and their government, something that doesn't exactly have a track record of being effective.
When the policy of abstentionism was overruled and cancelled at the Ard Fheis of 1986, it was highlighted by various republicans in opposition to such cancellation that once you enter Leinster House, Stormont and Westminster, and agree to cooperate with the British government, giving up your only other means of defending your sovereignty, you will be playing by their rules and not those of your own, and you will have no means to do something on the contrary.
These highlights are now much more than just that, they were prophecies of what has evidently come to pass.
It's not just the British Prime Minister and the vast majority of Westminster who are opposed to plans for Irish unity in the coming years. Leinster House are also opposed to such plans and rejected them in the 'Dáil'.
Sinn Fein is to blame for this and do not have the will or the means to do anything about it.