Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Ulster Unionists and Conservatives to merge…
Well, well, well. Here’s a thing. The news from David Cameron and Reg Empey in tomorrow’s Daily Telegraph (and here) is that the Conservative Party and the Ulster Unionist Party have agreed to set up “a joint working group to explore the possibilities of a closer cooperation leading to the creation of a new political and electoral force in Northern Ireland”. Slugger understands that although the decision was made just a week ago, the party’s talks with the Tories began as early as last October. The news appears to have come as something of a shock to the DUP.
Perhaps it shouldn’ have. This was Reg Empey’s speech last March:
I have given David Cameron an undertaking that if he succeeds in forming a new group in the European Parliament after the 2009 elections, outside the federalist leaning EPP, then the Ulster Unionists will support him by joining his new Group. It is vital that we build a pan-Union front, involving like minded parties who believe in the constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom. And it must spread to the European Parliament as well. The Union and the United Kingdom cannot survive if those who believe in it fight their own corners separately.
And judging by tomorrow’s joint Op Ed, it is clear that both Cameron and Empey are after the middle class liberal vote in Ulster every bit as much as the new liberal Tories are in Britain:
There are too many in Northern Ireland who have been put off playing any role (including voting) in politics by the vicious sectarian divisions of recent years. We believe that the creation of a new political and electoral dynamism will attract a surge of support from people in every part of the community who want to leave the past behind and join together to see a 21st Century Northern Ireland in which every citizen is an equal citizen in the politics of the United Kingdom. We believe the time for change has arrived and we are determined to make it happen.
Northern Ireland has changed over the past decade. Much of that change was generated by David Trimble and the Ulster Unionist Party. It is a change which has now been endorsed by the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein in particular, who are governing together in the institutions created by the Belfast Agreement in 1998. Northern Ireland, by agreement of both sides, is no longer a “cold house” for either Irish Nationalists or Unionists.
There is now speculation building in Westminster that the tipping point was reached, not by the 42 days vote, that was got over at the first subsequent meeting between Robinson and Cameron, but the increasingly strident (some would say incessant) grandstanding by Iris Robinson on the subject of homosexuality. Indeed, if Iain Dale is any indication of the current temper of the Tory party, she may have caused her party some considerable damage in that quarter.
The DUP might also take note that the Ulster Unionists are not the rank amatuers they clearly were just a few short years ago. There has not been the slightest hint that negotiations were either ongoing, or as advanced as they clearly are. The Ulster Unionists may still only have one MP, but they may now be able to call on much more substantial resources of the Tory party. And perhaps too they finally have a purpose above and beyond the narrow protection of a Union that is no longer under coherent attack from those outside, but in danger of losing coherence from within.
And perhaps a future to aspire to rather than post glories to mourn.
...all the people of Northern Ireland need to be able to address and be fully involved in all the national issues that are not devolved – foreign affairs, defence, the strategic fiscal and expenditure issues and the broad thrust of social policy. Northern Ireland needs to be brought back into the mainstream of UK politics. It needs more full-time MPs working in the House of Commons, taking part in all the national debates.
It needs MPs who have the real prospect of assuming office as ministers in the government of the day at Westminster. Northern Ireland needs to be properly represented in the corridors of power – and Westminster needs to benefit from the undoubted skills of its people. For too long many of the most talented have been turned-off by a political discourse dominated by the politics of division rather than the mainstream political debate of the nation.
Mick Fealty @ 08:52 PM
Hmm..
And what of the Northern Ireland Conservatives?
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 10:04 PMGoodbye UUP, hello (again) to the Tories
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 10:05 PMIt’s seems like an act of desperation by the UUP. They will be lucky if they still have a European MP after the next election, and with only one Westminster MP, they do not have a lot to offer the Tories..
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 10:15 PMAs a UUP member, I should imagine the Ulster Tories will join with us in seeking to put the Executive back in the hands of a true Unionist Party.
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 10:16 PMWell, what indeed? We will have to wait till Autumn to find out precisely. But at a guess, if Cameron has ultimate seniority, they’re like to be happy.
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 10:17 PM6CountyProd…..what a misnomer of a name….the UUP will be back in charge of Stormont and have additional Westminster MPs after the next elections….the lies and deceit of the DUPes will ensure more Dromores.
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 10:19 PMI can see why the UUP is desperate to hitch its wagon to the apparently rising Tories (just like SDLP with FF) but why on earth would the Tories reciprocate?
Many of the NI Conservatives today - if not twenty years ago - seem to be nearly as close to the Alliance Party as to the UUP in terms of the constitutional future. Reg hasn’t exactly set out a stall for progressive reforms and seems personally happy to play third fiddle in the discordant Executive orchestra.
Bob Wilson where are you? What’s up?
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 10:20 PM6cp:
Not sure you are reading sufficiently between the lines. They have been talking at senior level since last October. Believe me, if the Tories didn’t want this, Cameron would not be penning a joint byline with Empey in the Daily Telegraph.
This is hardly a time for begrudgery. Although they will surely have some high hurdles to jump, it looks like Empey has given his party a new purpose. Along with Sinn Fein and the Greens, they are now a party which can legitimately say they have plans to go into real government.
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 10:24 PMThis is really interesting actually. I suppose it is the logical conclusion of unionism; to move into a political grouping supportive of the Union and that actually has support (albeit limited outside England) in other constituent countries within it, and in so doing link NI further into the political life of the UK as a whole. What has come before was a kind of “our wee Province, Protestant Parliament for Protestant People” brand of Ulster nationalism that has been looked on with puzzlement from across the Irish sea but this could be an interesting development.
That is one reading of it. The other more short-term view could be that this is the UUP trying to save itself in the face of DUP domination. The DUP is the ultimate expression of Ulster nationalism and Iris Robinson has underlined that with her remarks in recent weeks. The DUP have no place in British politics outside NI, except maybe in the far-right fringes.Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 10:28 PMAs I said here in January:
“If the Conservatives are to make any real inroads into politics here, then it’s going to take something imaginative. While most Unionists voted DUP last time, this was on the basis of the DUP saying that the negotiations were continuing and that they were going to get a ‘Fair Deal’. We are starting to see the reality now e.g. the DUP allowing terrorists to be on an equal level with real victims. One only has to think of real victims like Ian Gow and Edgar Graham - murdered by Sinn Fein IRA cowards - to see how shamefully the DUP are acting.
So there is definitely scope for a real alternative to DUP spin. It would also give the Conservatives councillors and MLAs across Northern Ireland as well as putting them in NI Government at the stroke of a pen. Otherwise they’ll never make the breakthrough as most Unionists (Roman Catholics and Protestants) don’t wish to split the pro-Union vote any further.
Many Unionists would find the idea of voting for a Conservative & Unionist Party with a world-view very attractive.”
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 10:46 PMFor me, a Nationalist from the north this is a hugely interesting development and potentially make or break for the Union.
I think among Nationalists there is a sense, and has been since before 1998, that unionism had become so detached from the modern GB in it’s view of the world, the union and the position of NI in it that the weight of time and it’s own impotence would cause the union to increasingly fragment over time. Perhaps with what is going on in Scotland (or not)this is happening?
The subsequent post cease fire indifference to NI in GB and the rise to power of the DUP, a party that should it ever assume a national role in it’s current form, (bowler hats and all) would embarass those image and message conscious londoners so much they’d disown us quickly has meant we have become increasing confidant that the union will eventually fall in itself.
However should sir Reg and his lot manage to enter the cabinet (and not combust as the DUP surely would) I would admit that the union may be in a stronger position with the potential not just of someone from NI having a grown up role to play in real politik but NI being valued for something. (buliding a big ship that was a load of crap in 1912 doesn’t count).
Howver I keep the faith with my DUP compatriots. May be get old Iris around the country swearing her allegiance in her own blood. Something sensible like that will keep those unionists in their place.
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 10:48 PMMick
I read on the front page of the Telegraph that for the Conservatives the model would also be repeated in Scotland, a way of the Conseratives adopting a more federal structure in which the Scottish and NI partners are partners rather than juniors. In Scotland, where the Tory revival seems to need more autonomy for the local party, it makes sense and it could make sense to have similar partner relationships in NI too. As for the local Conservatives well they might just agree with a lot of what David Cameron writes in that joint piece with Reg Empey.
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 10:50 PMMick
See here:
Telegraph Front Page StoryPosted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 10:51 PMPost 12 and link in 13 explains what’s in it for the Tories.
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 10:52 PMThanks for that Slug. Just doing a piece for Brassneck with just that angle. It’s precisely the same angle suggested by Matthew Parris last October, as it happens.
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 10:56 PMMick Des et al
The NI Tories are on board. Go to
<a=“http://www.conservativesni.org/”>NI Conservatives</a>
where there is lots more stuff…quotes from David Trimble, owen Patterson et al.
The NI Tories are branding it An Historic Announcement.
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 11:02 PMNI Conservatives blog item on the Announcement
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 11:04 PMThis has the potential to be really quite sensible - although of course many more “potentially sensible ideas” in NI politics have hit the buffers than actually gotten anywhere.
To be fair, there’s quite a lot in it for the UUP - differentiation from the DUP (“British” versus “UlsterProd”), link to London politics, something “new” (always a good thing when you’re otherwise on the slide).
For NI generally, there’d be no harm in having two Assembly parties directly linked to Westminster (particularly if they were linked to the two parties which form the next coalition in London… :) )
But most of all, for those whose objective is the de-sectarianization of NI politics, there should be no fear in the idea of elections contested between:
- an NI Conservative (and unionist) Party,
- an NI (cross-community) Liberal Alliance,
- an NI Green Party,
- an NI (cross-community) Labour coalition, and
- a constitutional Irish Republican party (let’s call it “Fianna Fáil”).Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 11:08 PMBob Wilson says:
I have sent Mick the article but actually it is now up on our website in full
Someone asks what of the Ulster Tories and are we happy. We have represented the Party in these talks over the past few months.
We, Owen Paterson and David Cameron are united in our approach and our vision. We are very happy!
Caroline Spelman and others senior members of the Party have also been closely involved.We have had very productive meetings with the UUP and Sir Reg.
Can I completely scotch any suggestion that this has anything to do with the 42 day vote or Mrs Robinson’s opinions.
Unlike the DUP we have a broad long term vision aimed at normalising society and politics in Northern Ireland.I have, through the limitations of the internet, sought for many months to convince Slugger readers that Cameron understands our situation and is committed to helping us change it.
Read the article carefully and listen to him on the TV and radio tomorrow and judge for yourself!I believe Sir Reg and the UUP see in Cameron a man they can do business with.
This is potentially the beginning of the end of our isolation from UK politics that has lasted far too long.
Apparently the DUP are upset but actually it is the Shinners who should be most unset. Our All- UK agenda based on inclusion and tolerance will reveal the true narrow and divisive nature of Gerry’s supposed All Ireland agenda.
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 11:10 PMBob
I am impressed at the way this has been announced and with the local Conservatives in the loop. I do hope that it has a positive influence on NI politics.
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 11:17 PMI’d say from Cameron’s point of view, this has little to do with NI and lots to do with Scotland, and presenting themselves as the real party to save the Union. Obviously he doesn’t think this would affect any future potential deal with the DUP, and I think he’s right. Seems a mistake though should there be any future difficulties within the Executive. Can hardly be an objective honest broker. I reckon he thinks that means the Executive is safe.
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 11:27 PMI linked it just after it came on line at midnight Bob. Thanks for the copy!
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 11:32 PMThere is a logic to it - people working for the local UUP party can see themselves as part of a larger federation with the possibility of representation and a stake in government at a higher level. Also might bring new types of people into politics locally, as David Trimble says on the ConservativeNI site.
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 11:32 PMI would venture a guess that it is safe Gari.
Neither of the ‘big two’ have any other road to go. Both lose credibility if it falls. This just puts them even more on their mettle to actually get things done, and done well.
In any case, it wouldn’t be the first time there was a potential clash of interests between local and national scene. Think FF and SF?
The contrast with the thus far unsuccessful public courtship between FF and SDLP is striking.
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 11:39 PMI reckon it’s safe myself Mick, perhaps I ought to have said less likely to see temporary manufactured crises such as we are in the middle of now.
As for the local v national conflict, this is a choice to develop such an option, with a party with one MP, and that does not look capable of winning any more in a straight fight with the DUP. Perhaps this will provide added impetus for UUP/DUP pacts. I doubt the UUP will be stupid enough to think that this means that they could take any of those seats on the back of conservative support, but strategy hasn’t been their strongpoint for the last decade or so.
The FF/SDLP point is a good one. I just don’t think there is an appetite for it in FF. Why form an alliance with losers, and damage your credibility? Derry would be a safe seat, but the rest would be a burden. And lots of the more progressive elements in the SDLP wouldn’t want it either. I don’t think that will really change on either side. Maybe if the SDLP falls to one seat.
Posted by on Jul 23, 2008 @ 11:49 PM
