‘We need a teddy roosevelt’

As Brexit places the Northern peace dividend under ever greater strain, business figures such as Suneil Sharma argue that it’s time for a new political and economic model and a fresh way of thinking

Suneil Sharma: ‘What we delivered was a system of governance which at best is delivering inertia, and at worst is delivering slow decline’ Picture: Pacemaker

Suneil Sharma leans over his pot of Earl Grey tea and fixes me with a grave look. “This is my home,” he says, referring to the North, the country he was born and made his fortune in. “But I’ve never really felt at home here.”

He knows that by saying this people will assume it’s a reference to his Indian parents. They’d be wrong. Sharma is as Northern as Michelle O’Neill or Arlene ...