Henry McDonald: Will the UUP join the SDLP in opposition at Stormont?

Most media observers who watched and analysed the two televised debates between the leaders of the five main parties at Stormont agree that Mr Eastwood won both of them.

Both on the recorded UTV programme on Sunday May 1 and 48 hours later live on BBC NI every political analyst this writer spoke to believed the SDLP leader had come across as the most competent, articulate and delivered the best one-liners compared to the other four party chiefs around the table.

Since the Kennedy-Nixon live debate in the US presidential election of 1960 it has become an axiom of the modern democratic age that electoral contests can be won or lost on television.

No such logic seems to apply in Northern Ireland where a narrative is set down long before the starter gun is fired and the race is run to its almost inevitable finish – in this case Sinn Fein pipping the DUP to first place on the podium by virtue of two seats.

So, no matter how competent and polished Mr Eastwood was on television during the campaign his party have ended up coming last among the big five with the SDLP returning to Stormont with eight seats, which is four down from the last Assembly.

Yesterday his MLAs returned to Stormont and Mr Eastwood announced that they will form a new opposition because it was now apparent the party didn’t have a mandate for running a government department.

The move appeared to be the only one that the SDLP could make at this time if it is ever to recover from the mauling it received from the nationalist electorate.

Mr Eastwood claimed they had in their thousands “lent” Sinn Fein their votes in order to ensure the first ever pro-Irish unity first minister was installed at Stormont 101 years after Northern Ireland’s creation.

If and when an Executive is ever formed it will be a test of the SDLP leader’s ability to scrutinise, hold to account and at times rattle the devolved administration over the next few years.

Mr Eastwood vowed yesterday that his opposition will be “constructive” but it would be remiss of him if his eight party colleagues became token opponents who toed the Executive’s line consistently. Being in opposition gives them a platform to land blows on the ruling parties if of course Sinn Fein, the DUP etc ever get together to form a government.

The next question is: Where Colum leads will Doug follow?

Mr Beattie’s Ulster Unionists only got one seat more in this election and there are many in the party who believe that they too would be better off outside the Executive than in it. They argue an informal alliance with the SDLP could create an Assembly bloc that could seriously expose and criticise certain policy decisions driven by the two bigger parties.

Both men have spoken about the need for unionist-nationalist co-operation and from their viewpoints surely an UUP-SDLP joint opposition would embody that politically and practically.