I know you can name a few cases where someone has walked up to someone else and punched them in the face and got what they wanted, but in the vast majority of circumstances, it's much better when we have a conversation.
When we set out to have that conversation, it's better that we understand that as we're trying to negotiate a situation with someone else, we'll probably have to give a little in order to reach a middle point. That's kind of how negotiation works.
I was brought up in the west of Scotland, so we watched the Northern Ireland problem from a slight distance, but we were quite ingrained in that. I always used to describe us as Belfast Lite because we had a big sectarian problem where people would sit on one side, and other people would sit on the other, and nobody would move to the middle.
It was weird for me because my Dad is a Protestant, and my Mum is a Catholic, and I love them both the same.
When we reach a situation of conflict, whatever that conflict means, the first thing we should do is have the conversation, and the second thing we should do is fight, not the other way around.
Blog Post Number - 4082