Alasdair must face political reality
A COUPLE of weeks ago, Alasdair McDonnell - possibly the next leader of the SDLP - issued an invitation to the UUP and Alliance to help him create an alternative to the mess that the DUP and Sinn Fein were making of devolution. He issued that invitation fully aware of the link between the UUP and Conservatives and fully aware of the fact that UCUNF intended to field candidates in every constituency, including his own.
Yet last Friday he sent a letter to Prime Ministers Gordon Brown and Brian Cowen stating that "I am very concerned at the recent direct intervention in the politics of Northern Ireland by the Conservative Party, which I can only assume comes with the direct endorsement of David Cameron (sorry, did Alasdair miss the visits of Cameron and Hague to UUP conferences and their campaign support for Jim Nicholson?). I regard this as a very negative intervention in politics in the north at a very crucial time."
Do I detect a faint whiff of inconsistency and self-interest from Alasdair on this matter? Putting it bluntly, he had no difficulty with Conservative Party intervention when he thought it would result in a split unionist vote and allow him to retain South Belfast; but when, as he suggests in his letter, it looks like a single unionist candidate could emerge and unseat him, he complains that "David Cameron is playing reckless politics with dangerously high stakes". I know Alasdair and like him, but unionists wanting to replace him with a pro-Union representative at Westminster can hardly be described as reckless politics!
Both the SDLP and Sinn Fein are united Ireland parties. Indeed, SDLP leadership contenders Alasdair McDonnell and Margaret Ritchie have said in their election material that the SDLP will continue to push the unity agenda. So what is wrong with unionists wanting to ensure the election of pro-Union MPs, particularly in seats like South Belfast, where there is clearly a pro-Union majority? This isn't about a sectarian headcount - however much some people may wish to pretend that it is - it's a constitutional headcount. I didn't withhold my vote from Alasdair because he is a Roman Catholic (anyway, I'm an atheist, so the religion of candidates isn't an issue for me): I withheld it because he is a united-Irelander, which is an issue for me.
Which brings me to another matter, the stepping down of Conservative candidates Shelia Davidson and Peter McCann because, or so it is alleged, they regard talks between the DUP, UUP and Conservatives as "the triumph of tribalism over inclusive, secular politics". What arrogant nonsense!
The desire of unionists to maximise pro-Union turnout and seats is no more tribal than the desire of rock-solid Conservatives (those who never have and never will vote for any other party) to oust Labour. It's no more tribal than those Americans who would prefer any Democrat to any Republican. If every Catholic and Protestant renounced their faith and all became atheists, our politics would still boil down to the battle between pro-Union atheists and Irish unity atheists!
The very fact, too, that both McCann and Davidson have no difficulty in describing themselves as "Catholic unionists" worries me as well, for it suggests that they buy into the very sectarianism they claim to oppose. If they believe in the Union and believe that it represents the best socio-economic constitutional future for Northern Ireland, then why does it matter that they are Catholic? Or are we to believe that there are “Catholic unionists” across Northern Ireland who will only vote for unionist candidates who are themselves Catholic?
Anyway, I’m pretty sure that the UCUNF project and the unionist desire to maximise representation will get on perfectly well without them. If they couldn’t stand a bit of pressure on the lowest rung of the political ladder, I dread to think how they would have coped with the everyday stress of an election campaign.
Actually, let me be brutal about this: I’m actually sick to death of some career-changing self-styled “unionists” making it sound like they are doing the unionist brand some sort of favour by supporting our cause. I want them on board because of their genuine commitment to unionism, not because of their professional background or religious beliefs, or because they imagine themselves to be “better” than the rest of us. Unionism is and always has been a big tent, and some people would do well to remember that!
All that aside though, and returning to Alasdair McDonnell’s original invitation to the UUP a few weeks ago; what about the long term future of the Assembly? For Alasdair was right when he said that the present set-up isn’t working; and he, like Danny Kennedy, is also right when he says that there has to be “something better”. The difficulty, of course, is that the “something better” must also be based on power-sharing between unionists and united-Irelanders.
But how does the UUP build a centre-ground relationship with the SDLP if, at the same time, they seem to be working together with the DUP to unseat the probable next leader of the SDLP? How do they build a coalition - which may even embrace the Alliance Party along with the SDLP - if there is a unionist electoral pact geared towards the winning back of SDLP and Alliance seats in the next Assembly election? In other words, how do you create the sort of inter-party relationship required to boost cooperation and consensus in a power-sharing Executive if unionists build a communal bloc which inflicts electoral damage on the SDLP and Alliance?
My problem at the moment is that I don’t have an answer to those questions. And if we don’t find answers to those questions then we won’t, collectively or individually, be able to repair the dysfunctional nature of the Executive and replace it with structures that deliver the sort of devolution we thought we were voting for in 1998.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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