John Downing

speaker

506 appearances 6 recordings 1 series first heard Apr 2026 last heard 10 Sep

John Downing’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 6 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 2.

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The Indo Daily · Would a border poll actually deliver a united Ireland? · 4 Sep 2026 podcast

How is that going to be replaced?

And what what kind of sort of synergies or you know gains would be made?

Brian Cowan, for example, used to always say, Park all the nationalism.

And look at United Ireland just in in simple terms.

Why have two of everything on a small island?

You know, two energy grids, two post offices, two welfare systems, two health systems, etcetera.

And surely there would be efficiencies to be gained from all of that.

Surely there would be economic benefits from more cross border trade and integrated economies, so on and so forth, all of that, but still pretty hard to make up fourteen, fifteen billion a year.

Where's it going to come from?

How much more tax and so on?

Yes, you could probably have interim money coming from London, interim money.

From Brussels, surely, the if there was an ending of partition in a European Union member state, certainly, and probably from America, but none of that, that would be transient.

So that's a big issue that has to be addressed.

I I don't think it is much of a priority.

I think it it they feel it needs to be quote unquote spoken to, addressed.

So when you're asked, Oh, what are you doing about unity and you know, you you can't sit there sucking air, you have to have some answers.

So on on that basis well he'll say, Of course there's a shared island initiative, there is this, there is that and we are proceeding and you know, we're we're studying or we're keeping a good or or a as the as the the county council used to say about the hole in the road, we're looking into it, you know.

Um I I think it is inevitable.

I mean I don't see any end to this situation other than a united Ireland.

The when and how is complex.

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