If parties do unite, they need to do it soon
FROM listening to Tom Elliott’s speech at his party conference just three months ago, you would have struggled to find clues that he was exploring a closer relationship with the DUP.
The Ulster Unionist leader lambasted the DUP and Sinn Fein for “a two-party carve-up serving purely sectional interests”, accused the DUP of being “ourselves alone” and suggested that the UUP’s larger unionist rival “would like us to disappear” but vowed that would not happen.
However, it is now clear that at that very point the UUP was talking to the party it accused of being at the root of bad government with the view to forming closer ties.
What exactly was being discussed in those talks is open to widespread speculation, which has been exacerbated by the lack of explanation from the party.
Privately, some in the UUP suggest that it was little more than seeing if both parties could work together on issues of mutual concern at Stormont, something which many supporters of both parties would welcome, and suggest that Mr McNarry is exaggerating their importance.
Others in the party suggest that the talks were much more significant, extending into discussions of who the parties would field as (separate) candidates in the 2014 European election.
In the past, when the ambiguous term ‘unionist unity’ has been raised it has been most warmly welcomed by the DUP, although even that tightly disciplined party has found that the issue is so sensitive that it was unable to stop the party’s founder, Lord Bannside, making his opposition to a single unionist party public.
The UUP, however, is deeply – and visibly – divided on the issue.
Deputy leader John McCallister and former leadership candidate Basil McCrea are fiercely hostile to the idea, while former chief whip David McNarry and Executive minister Danny Kennedy have publicly supported a close relationship with the party’s larger unionist rival.
It is not yet clear whether Mr McNarry can substantiate his claims about the discussions and whether they were approved by his party leader.
However, if they were, Mr Elliott will find it difficult to sell to his party’s MLAs and ruling executive, which two years ago voted overwhelmingly to reject such a move.
However, many unionist politicians report that closer cooperation between the parties is popular on the doorsteps. And the leadership of the Orange Order, influential particularly in many rural seats, is supportive of unionist unity, although the membership is more split on the issue.
If the UUP is planning to work closer with the DUP now that it has parted ways with the Conservatives, it needs to make a decision sooner rather than later.
If years of attacks on each other are cast aside on the eve of an election it will look like a shotgun marriage rather than two like minds coming together.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 12 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South
