Real change can only come when parties work together

The people deserve an alternative. Like Labour in the 1970s, the DUP-Sinn Fein coalition isn't working.

Our unemployment lines are growing longer, the promise of a post-sectarian north is unfulfilled and parents everywhere are stressed-out by politics' betrayal of their children by making a bad exam worse.

But where is the alternative?

Some commentators have wondered whether the system of an enforced coalition is making real power-sharing impossible to achieve and that a more traditional model with a government and an opposition would offer more effective government for our region.

Adversarial, winner-takes-all politics with clear governments and opposition is the way in the UK and Ireland, but not everywhere.

The American system is much more complex - as is the French one. Not to mention Israel, or Belgium, both of which have systems in which power is effectively shared between different offices which may or may not be held by representatives of the same party.

Our system doesn't make politics more difficult; it just makes it different.

What is worrying is that the inability of some political parties to work the system, as it has been designed to work, may be the real issue which is undermining the opportunity for successful regional government here.

Neither Sinn Fein nor the DUP will score well on their record in government.

To date, the Executive they both lead has distinguished itself for inaction rather than results and this is very unlikely to change in the run-up to the 2010 UK General Election and the 2011 Assembly poll.

This is not because they have a free run in institutional terms with no opposition breathing down their necks.

It is because they are being measured by their support base on their ability to stand up to each other rather then work together in the interests of all.

If either the SDLP or UUP were to leave the Executive, they would stand accused of fostering instability. But that does not mean they cannot change the way they work together inside and outside the Executive. Right now it is not so much a debate about opposition, but one about alternatives.

There is nothing in the structures of government which would prevent the UUP and SDLP from developing common positions on key issues.

Education is an obvious example. Agree the basic principles of a workable system based on academic excellence and social justice, possibly with pupil choice at 14, and at least both parties could demonstrate that Irish and British people who call this region home can agree on important issues.

Tackling our divisions is another. Commit to a shared future and stand together against sectarianism and racism.

Even on the economy there is very little on which the DUP and SF agree. This creates yet another opportunity for the UUP and the SDLP.

They should agree a real Green New Deal and have the courage to publish it as an alternative response to the current recession.

All this does not in any way prejudice either party's nationalism or unionism. No more than it would prejudice the Green Party, Alliance or PUP if they were to support agreed positions.

What it would illustrate is that our two communities and their representatives can work together and share a commitment to the success of this region and its people. This would be a real platform for change.

The system can be reviewed until the cows come home, but real change will come when nationalists and unionists start really sharing power and working together for the betterment of all.

The DUP and SF seem unable or unwilling to do this.

The question is whether the SDLP and UUP could.