Earl Storey is one of the UUP’s newer recruits. He gives his own assessment of where the party’s recent reversals leaves it. Above all else the party he argues requires a vision that ordinary people can rally around.
By Earl Storey
How is the Ulster Unionist Party going to react to the Euro election results? Is the membership going to turn in on itself, look for a scapegoat, tear itself apart, roast a leader … and in the process … do their political opponents job for them. No doubt there will be some straining at the leash to do some or all of the above. Well its about time for something else a bit more constructive and with a bit more of the right sort of fire in the belly.
What is causing the electoral slide, with little done to stop it by the latest poll outing? There is no doubt that the dear old UUP has done a great job on behalf of its opponents … spending so much time on internal rancour and attempts to cook the leader. All that bad blood does little to make a healthy election machine. When you are so busy sniping at your fellow party members, the leadership or watching your back … your electoral opponents are hardly going to quiver in their boots. More likely to laugh all the way to the Count methinks. Rocket science it isn’t!
But … if there are timid friendly souls who think that the UUP misfortunes are solely the result of fratricide (doing the dirty on others in your party) then I have bad news. Oh that it were all so simple. If that were the case there would be wounded martyr comfort from licking our wounds in the ashes of our next defeat.
The ‘troops on the ground’ (forgive the military pun … lets demilitarise blah blah blah … cut and paste empty clich�s as desired) are nervous and discouraged. We need a drop of the ‘common touch’ from on high. We are talking about a party that is by and large made up of decent ordinary people – not extremists. People are crying out for a sense of vision – a sense of this is how we are going and that is how we are going to get there. Above all reassurance and that common touch is needed for ordinary members on the ground whose sense of self-belief has been bruised, but is still recoverable.
What is not needed now is healthy amounts of self-pity and sharpening of knives to have another go at the scapegoat. However, well meaning but ineffectual amateurism is not going to save the day. Nor are a team of public representatives who are doubtless talented but were noticeable in their lack of ‘electricity’ or connection with ordinary people. We need public representatives who are not just there because they are there. There is a danger that we expect our leader to do all the leading. This is not only an impossible task for any person it is also a cop out for the rest of those who are elected / seeking election or hold positions of office. What is needed is representatives at every level who can connect and inspire. Smart politics with the common touch … who can resist!
All of us in the party are glad that the old patrician days of Unionist politics are gone. The bad old days when votes were taken for granted and ours was not to reason why. These were not meant to be replaced by some of the anarchy, self-destructive behaviour and crass disloyalty that we have had in the recent past. Hopefully those bad old days are gone too. But there is energy and decency out there that can still be harnessed. If it is going to be harnessed there is going to have to be connection between the higher echelons of the party and the folk on the ground … with healthy doses of loyalty and common cause all round. If not then we might as well get the champagne in for our political opponents. The first round will well and truly have been bought by us!!
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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