David Burnside: Political unionism is fighting seriously below its weight ... its future lies in a United Unionist Party
With a population of under two million people, Northern Ireland has three unionist parties: the DUP, UUP, TUV, and a number of independents.
The DUP, formed by Ian Paisley in the 1970s, has been a thorn in the flesh of the old monolithic Ulster Unionist Party, which was formed to oppose Irish Home Rule and established the Northern Ireland state and parliament at Stormont. Once a strong opponent of the Belfast Agreement, it now sits in government with Sinn Féin.
The TUV, which took the DUP seat of North Antrim from Ian Paisley Junior and is led by one of the best political operators in the province, Jim Allister MP, is capitalising on unionist resentment of our treatment by Westminster, with Labour and Conservatives supporting a border down the Irish Sea.
Political unionism is fighting seriously below its weight. Support for the Union at a 70-80% turnout is probably around 60% of the electorate, but the three parties poll at least 15-20% less in assembly and parliamentary elections.
The pro-nationalist front of southern nationalist parties, Sinn Féin and the SDLP, is now joined by Alliance and the Greens, who are lined up against unionism.
There is an opportunity, two years away from assembly and local government elections in 2027 and a general election in 2028, for unionism to get its act together and form a new United Unionist Party.
Many unionists will never join the DUP, and many DUP members would never vote for the Ulster Unionists, and the TUV is a siren voice against the protocol and the Windsor Framework; still, it will never replace the DUP and UUP.
All these parties have little to separate them on policy for education, the NHS, and the economy. On moral issues like gay rights, they should be dealt with on a personal conscience basis with no party discipline or whipping.
The United Unionist Party name is available through a pretty straightforward process with the Electoral Commission. A party board needs to be set up, a management committee comprising representatives from all three parties should be established, and the Electoral Commission can oversee a consultative process after the party is registered.
If there is a will from the leadership of the three parties – Gavin Robinson, Mike Nesbitt and Jim Allister – the new United Party could be operational by next summer. The unionist people on the ground want unity, but leadership must come from the top.
Unionist leaders need to once again believe in "United We Stand, Divided We Fall”.
We need wins against the republican nationalists' rewriting of history. A United Unionist Party would top the poll at the next assembly election, putting its leader into the position of first minister and winning more ministers in the executive and damage, if not halt, Sinn Fein’s campaign for a border poll.
A loose coalition of three parties like the UUUC of the 1970s does not meet the present criteria for electing a first minister from the largest party at Stormont.
At Westminster, one united party would have more influence with Labour, Conservative and Reform.
Combining resources would allow funds to be allocated to unionism promotion in the UK, in both the Commons and the Lords, and abroad, especially in the US.
United unionism needs to take on the Irish Republic for hypocrisy over legacy. It was a Fianna Fáil government under Charlie Haughey that helped finance the formation of the Provisional IRA. It was the Irish Republic that refused to extradite republican murderers to stand trial in the UK. And it was the Republic that allowed the Provisional IRA to run training grounds and arms dumps during the Troubles and turned a blind eye to Garda rogue officers who conspired with the IRA to murder Northern Ireland judges and senior RUC officers.
For the southern government to have the cheek to bring a case against the UK at the European Court of Human Rights is shameful.
The truth about the past needs to be told and not rely on propaganda being spewed out daily by the pan-nationalist front.
Moreover, the historical record shows that successive Dublin governments have consistently failed to acknowledge their complicity in facilitating republican violence throughout the conflict.
Unionists can't rely on the British government of any colour to promote and defend the Union as they would in Scotland. We are second-class citizens within our own country.
Replacing disunity and infighting with a new, strong united party would encourage a new party like Reform not to divide the electorate in the forthcoming Westminster elections, to the delight of republicans and nationalists.
If unionist leaders would only sit back and think strategically, a United Unionist Party would be a no-brainer. They should put country and cause above party, end the division that has split unionism for the last 50 years, and halt progress toward a new border poll, which the people don't want and would destabilise political institutions at Stormont and threaten the return of the Troubles.
l David Burnside is a former UUP MP and MLA for South Antrim