What’s required is a Leader to bring about SDLP unity, not Irish unity…

Ian Parsley’s been doing some quietly impressive analysis pieces on the sidelines of NI politics. His latest piece is on what (and it’s easy to forget) has only just become the SDLP’s leadership campaign:

Firstly, as discussed on this blog earlier in the week, Irish unity is not about to happen and people know it. The SDLP’s constitutional stance is clear, but it is also largely irrelevant unless is can be given extra meaning (in the same way the Alliance Party gave extra meaning to its anti-sectarian stance by emphasising the costs of segregation – no matter what your view on that, it’s relevant and interesting to the same degree “North/South makes sense” is boring and forgettable). Mr McGlone makes matters even worse by hiding behind slightly ambiguous language – apparently it’s about “unity of the Irish people”, whatever that means.

Secondly, it is already obvious that the SDLP is carving itself up. What is required is a Leader to bring about not Irish unity but SDLP unity. Starting immediately with the suggestion that you are smarting because you weren’t picked for a position, and suggesting that the only grounds you would have been picked was time of service (and, implicitly, that you were in another faction) is as pointless as it is divisive. What difference would McGlone make as a Minister, that Attwood isn’t making? What difference, for that matter, would McGlone make as a Leader, that Ritchie isn’t making or that McDonnell wouldn’t make?

It’s early days. Very little of substance has yet risen to the surface. But there are some fundamentally useful questions in there that all any candidate ought to consider carefully. Not least because the answers to them will define the size and shape of their ambition.

For themselves surely, and for their party of course. But also for the people whom the seek to represent. It’s the lack of ambition, and courage of conviction that defines the difference between themselves and their nationalist rivals.

Whomever takes the lead needs to express some degree of appetite and ambition if the party is to become relevant to future voters.

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.