Renegade former Ulster Unionist MLAs Basil McCrea and John McCallister have now publicly announced that they intend to set up a new political party for those disaffected with the political direction of the UUP under Mike Nesbitt’s leadership. At this point, the new party still needs a name.
As both Basil and John lived through the fiasco of UCUNF, I can see why they aren’t rushing into a choosing a name for the party. I’m sure that SDLP activists today are glad that, over 40 years ago, their founding fathers did not go with their initial idea of naming themselves the Labour and Social Democratic Party. But the party, if it is to have any credibility, needs a new name quickly. Perhaps Slugger readers, gentle souls that they are, could make a few suggestions here? Both serious and spoof ideas are welcome. The problem is that almost every credible name for Unionist political party has already been used by some splinter at some point over the past century.
(I would suggest simply calling the Basil and John Party the New Party, but somebody else got there first.)
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