SDLP: (Still a)live from Newcastle…
Okay, this is our first conference live from the venue so to speak… The interest is mostly on who wins the leadership contest, but I’ll be spending some of my time testing the waters and talked to delegates about that contest, the future of the party and (if I can persuade them) to tell us ‘what the SDLP is for?’ Drop me a line if you want to help moderate the live blog, since I’ll be contributing mostly through Twitter and we need people to let people’s comments come through in a timely manner… If you are tweeting, let us have you stream address and we’ll add it… otherwise, we’re picking up the #SDLP hashtag… (Your killer questions please?)
Erasmus……this is very true.
Sinn Féin in the south has suffered as a result of their 6 county leadership.
SDLP on the other hand enjoys a good reputaion in the south which can only be tarnished by linking with Fianna Fáil held to be a party of “stroke politicians” in the north.
Medillen
The Republican Movement had decided by 1987 that a peace and justice strategy was required to advance the struggle, as the armed struggle had reaached a military stalemate.
I refer you to http://johnoconnell.org/Believe.htm if you really want to know the truth. The truth is stranger than fiction. And I know that the voters will come back to the SDLP when the time is right and when they have got over this fascination with trying to intimidate the unionists into a united Ireland.
When they want to persuade the unionists they’ll come back to the SDLP. What side of a Rwanda or a Bosnia that derives from, who knows? Perhaps Gerry Adams knows? Perhaps no human being knows?
Redhugh78
I’m sure people are aware that Gerry Adams was imvolved with the IRA but when they see pictures of Jean McConville on screen, they will see the lack of empathy at the heart of the all miliatrism and they will think twice about endorsing his strategy.
When they realise that it must inevitably lead to them having to fight a Bosnia, or Rwanda, they will chuckie no more.
fitzer,
‘Sinn Féin in the south has suffered as a result of their 6 county leadership.’
Not really . They have suffered from not attracting enough electable candidates during the years of the tiger . They also have to contend with much stronger political opposition in the Republic and they miss out on having the ‘sectarian’ inflammatory background in the Republic -which is what helps to consolidate their vote particularly among the young in Northern Ireland .
It’s not clear yet whether SF in the South can attract the hundreds of thousands of disaffected youth . Some 3 in 4 young people under the age of 25 have little confidence in the present political establishment to dig the country out of it’s present mess .
But then I’m sure the percentage numbers of disaffected youth could be replicated right now in NI -the UK or the USA .
The problem for SF is that for their ‘hard left’ agenda to ever be a practical possibility in Ireland it would first have to be taken on board in the larger economies of Germany, France , the UK. Spain and Italy . Ireland cannot afford to be isolated politically from our major trading partners .
The people have no desire to return to Dev’s bucolic pastoral paradise where as many people left the country each year as were born into it .
SF have to move towards the centre -assuming that at some point in this economic downturn worldwide that the centre will remain a political destination that offers reasonable hope to hundreds of millions across the world .
That is not guaranteed of course . The countries of the world have yet to reach a new economic paradigm and the birthing process is still underway.
Greenflag,
I take your point and note the caveat “Not Really” which suggests you see my point also.
The point of agreement is that we agree SF down South do not have enough electable candidates. In part that is due to most of the major faces being “northern”.
The recent talks at Hillsborough with Mary Lou and Ferris prominent serves the twin purpose of showing its northern voters that SF is a 32 county party AND antagonising unionists.
We have even seen the knuckle dragger response fom unionists on this Board which is always satisfying.
But in the north SF is preaching to the converted (in one community). They start off in the south about 25 years behind in terms of mass appeal.
I note you concentrate on economics, trading partners, Europe, Celtic Tiger etc. This is crucial. This is uppermost in most southern minds. Mary Lou at the Hillsborough Top Table and Ferris hovering in press briefings has I believe a mixed (at best) reaction in the south among potential voters who see them mixed up in a northern sideshow which is either entertaining or irrelevant to economy.
The most recent Southern Election was a disappointment for SF. They thought they might take a few extra seats and while they certainly came close…I have heard some anecdotal evidence which suggests that southerners were wary of van loads of northerners enthusiastically descending on their constituency. Probably a case where LESS was MORE.
The UDA/UVF has always claimed its violence was reactive.
Yes, but everyone knows that this wasn’t the truth.
It never had the POLITICAL strength of militant Republicans.
The political strength of the republicans was very limited until they found a politician who was willing to lend them credibility and make them acceptable to middle-class Catholic voters. That politician was John Hume.
John Hume is a Republican.
I don’t remember him ever describing himself as such while he was SDLP leader, or before.
Far too soon to tell if the Peace is lasting but would you like to visit the CAIN website and state the number of deaths in the ten years to 1998…….and the ten years after 1998?
I wont embarrass you with actual figures.
Suffice to say it makes a nonsense of your point about “The Hume Doctrine” doesnt it?
No. The “Hume Doctrine” assumes that Hume persuaded the IRA to adopt peace. In fact the IRA were essentially militarily defeated and had been talking to the British government through back channels since the late 1980s with a view to trying to find a way out. The deal with Hume was that he would give them a leg up, and Hume would take the credit.
So I don’t credit the Hume doctrine with creating the peace that we now enjoy. The IRA fought as hard as it could, and lost, and ultimately surrendered and unilaterally disarmed.
If anything, Hume delayed the reconciliation process. The 1992 Brooke talks offered a promising path forward, something similar to what we ended up with in 1998, and the indications are that the DUP as well as the UUP may have been on board. We could have had that six years earlier if Hume hadn’t decided to walk out to promote Hume-Adams instead.