Trevor Ringland: Middle ground still very much exists in Northern Ireland - and it is not confined to the UUP, SDLP and Alliance party
A letter from Trevor Ringland:
The UUP’s leadership election gives that party, and the Stormont parties more widely, an opportunity to think about how they can better serve Northern Ireland.
The idea of a ‘middle ground’ in politics has been ridiculed, but there certainly was a set of people, with different political aspirations, who refused to go where the more extreme elements wanted to lead them, during the period we simplistically call The Troubles.
They were supported by the security forces, who, with notable exceptions, showed restraint and worked through the justice system, to avoid a civil war.
That should not be overlooked as we try to shape our present and future.
The middle ground was effectively abandoned by the governments at Westminster and Dublin, in 1998, when they agreed to release paramilitary prisoners without requiring them to decommission their weapons first.
They were too focused on the sensitivities of the republican movement, then and later, which allowed Sinn Fein to distort the history of the Troubles and gain political support, as well as bringing about the rise of harder line unionism.
This process was made worse by the terms of the St Andrews Agreement, which were intended to shore up the DUP and Sinn Fein’s ascendency.
The legacy of those mistakes is the low quality government we get at Stormont today.
The middle ground still exists, and these days it is not confined to the UUP, SDLP and Alliance party. There are people in all the parties who genuinely want to address our society’s problems.
In the last election, though, the UUP, SDLP and Alliance received around 300,000 votes, or one third of the total votes cast. The idea that the UUP and SDLP are dead, or approaching death, is nonsensical.
In fact, the results point to an appetite for more coherent relationships.
If the next UUP leader is looking for a gap in the political market, it is for a party that believes in Northern Ireland for all, promotes good government here and tries to maximise the huge benefits that we draw from being part of the United Kingdom.
That is absolutely compatible with building good social and economic relationships on this island.
The UUP founded Northern Ireland on that basis 100 years ago, so it is well placed to appreciate the benefits of such a position and to promote what we have achieved here.
Despite the gloom we often project, politics is working here, but it could work so much better.
A fresh, confident approach from the UUP would invigorate Stormont and challenge the rest. Kicking the St Andrews’ agreement to touch would also help.
Trevor Ringland, lawyer and reconciliation campaigner