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Editor's Viewpoint: Deal could be final nail in SDLP's coffin

 

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Colum Eastwood

Colum Eastwood

Colum Eastwood

Editor's Viewpoint

When is a merger not a merger? According to the SDLP and Fianna Fail, the two parties are merely in a partnership, a gradual movement towards developing joint policies on Brexit, Irish unity and social issues.

But what does that mean to the voters who have been deserting the SDLP in their droves in recent years, to the point that the party does not even have a single MP?

In Northern Ireland's binary sectarian politics, voters don't want nuanced messages. They like to know that the party they vote for is against whatever 'the other side' stands for.

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Look at the debate on Brexit as an example, or the fact that the traditional bases of Sinn Fein and the DUP are not rebelling against the lack of government in Northern Ireland.

Not even the most diehard SDLP supporter can deny the party is operating in the last-chance saloon. It does not have the number of activists, nor the finances, to challenge the Sinn Fein juggernaut.

How many voters now remember the glory days when it was the voice of nationalist Northern Ireland?

It no longer has charismatic leaders, such as John Hume, Gerry Fitt or Seamus Mallon, who along with other high-profile members brought the concerns of nationalists to an international audience and who were instrumental in creating the peace process.

Many will argue that bringing Sinn Fein in from the cold was political suicide for the SDLP, but what cannot be denied is the courage of the party and the Ulster Unionists in agreeing to power-sharing in the face of opposition from the DUP and Sinn Fein.

They accepted that it was the only acceptable template for political progress and a potentially better life for the people of Northern Ireland.

This has been realised to a large extent, but both must now feel aggrieved that their reward was to be shunned at the polls.

The problem for the parties is differentiating themselves from their larger opponents.

Obviously, the majority of those people at or near the top of the SDLP believe that the partnership with Fianna Fail will help.

However, history is not on its side, as other ill-fated alliances here have proved.

The party hierarchy will also have a difficult task in convincing influential members, such as Claire Hanna, that it is a move worth making.

Any split in the party could sound its death knell.

Belfast Telegraph

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