Alex Kane argues in last week’s column in the Newsletter that too many in his own party (UUP) are disregarding the wood for the trees, particularly with regard to attacks on Jeffrey Donaldson, who he beleives has been consistent in his positions both before and after his move to the DUP.
This column is no particular admirer of Jeffrey Donaldson, but nor is it a believer in attacking him just for the sake of it. I worry, therefore, that there now appears to be an orchestrated assault focused solely on him. I worry, because I believe that the attacks are misjudged and built upon a false premise, namely, that Jeffrey’s position has shifted since he left the UUP.
This is what he said at the Glenties Summer School two weeks ago: “Moving from a conflict to a peaceful environment creates difficulties on all sides. Those who have inflicted the violence on the community have to give up the power that they have held and those who have suffered at the hands of the violence have to live with the prospect of some of the perpetrators and their colleagues being in positions of power. This is an enormous challenge for many people to face up to. The one thing which can go someway to easing this particular problem is for the victims to see that the violence and the terrorist arsenal have been given up once and for all.”
This is almost identical to the position he outlined in the autumn of 1997, when he agreed that the UUP should stay in the Talks process, even though the DUP and UKUP had withdrawn, after Sinn Fein had been admitted without prior decommissioning from the IRA.
He left the process on April 10th, 1998, not because he opposed the Agreement per se, but because he believed that a number of key issues hadn’t been resolved, loose ends hadn’t been tied up, and no clear linkage had been established between political progress and the IRA’s journey to totally democratic means.
I don’t believe that his position has shifted all that much in the past seven years. That said, he has, in my opinion, made two key errors of judgment in the past four years.
First, he should have challenged David Trimble for the leadership in March 2000, rather than leaving it to Martin Smyth. Had he done so, he would either have won, or pushed Trimble so close that his position would have been untenable. By not standing, he suggested to some of his supporters that he didn’t “have the bottle” for a real fight.
Second, in joining the DUP, he has joined a party which has shifted position very considerably from that which it occupied between 1997 and November 2003. In essence, the DUP is now in the same position as the UUP was when it signed the Agreement. Jeffrey is in danger of living through his own Groundhog Day.
In a letter to this newspaper on Thursday, a reader very kindly reminded me of a warning I had issued a few months ago, about the danger of the UUP and DUP engaging in a bitter, pointless, mudslinging spat. Yes, it may gain publicity for the people concerned, but it does irreparable damage to both parties in terms of image and future co-operation.
There is room for two mainstream unionist parties in Northern Ireland; working separately to maximize the total pro-Union vote, and co-operating when necessary to maximize their joint strength in the Assembly or in the local councils. Indeed, there is a very strong argument for the UUP preparing itself to be the genuine and effective official opposition in the Assembly.
In the meantime, knocking five bells out of each other in a series of sham showdowns simply weakens both sides, and distracts from the very serious political matters which must still be resolved. The DUP has to prepare its electorate for a deal in a few months time—and, as I have argued for months, I believe that a deal is now inevitable. The UUP, on the other hand, apart from establishing a series of policy options to counter DUP proposals, has to rebuild, reconnect and re-engage with its own grassroots and the wider pro-Union community.
I know this is the “silly season,” but that doesn’t excuse the farcical knockabout which passes for serious debate in unionist circles. Grow up, guys, and get to grips with the issues that really matter.
First published in the Newsletter on Saturday 7th August 2004
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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