| If
You Ask Me
with Alex
Kane
When the DUP climbed
into bed with Sinn Fein on May 8th a number of professional Jeremiahs
predicted that the relationship would last as long as a Britney Spears
marriage.
But the DUP itself
was extraordinarily cocky; with Peter Robinson promising financial windfalls
from a grateful UK exchequer and insisting that unionists - with their
hands on the levers, and a stack of vetoes under the Executive table -
would be masters of their own destiny.
It’s been a
dreadful five months since then. The windfall has been replaced with a
Scrooge-like instruction to tighten belts and cut staff. Ian Paisley,
having accepted the authentic mammon of political office, has been forced
to stand down as Moderator.
Jim Allister has become
the born-again Keeper of the True Unionist Faith and gathered together
a band of elderly and slightly potty refusniks to wage war against former
colleagues.
The Causeway saga
has raised very serious questions about the DUP’s approach to ministerial
decisions and exposed the absence of transparency at the heart of government.The
bust-up with Margaret Ritchie was just another example of the weakness
of the St Andrews Agreement: Put simply, “It’s accountability,
stupid!”
Their annual conference,
which should have been a propaganda rally in praise of the Great Leader
and the splendid new era of unionist confidence, has been quietly abandoned.
The truth of the matter
is that the DUP - a natural party of protest and bombast - is proving
to be very bad at government and decision making. So bad, indeed, that
it has been forced to write to the UUP - still described as the party
of pushover unionism - to see if it is interested in some sort of pact
to maximise the unionist vote. Or putting it more cynically; allowing
the DUP to play the unity card to trump Allister’s joker.
While there is certainly
some mileage for a unionist pact targeted at Sinn Fein seats rather than
the SDLP, it would be wrong to assume that a marriage of convenience between
Ian and Sir Reg would necessarily increase the turnout.
The issues that matter
in the future will be socio-economic, health, education, housing, employment,
small business, et al.
Pro-Union voters
are going to find new yardsticks by which to measure the abilities and
relevance of the UUP and DUP and the parties are going to have to go beyond
the flag, the sash and the drumming up of old fears and deliver practical,
effective and costed policies.
Meanwhile, the UUP
is holding a meeting next week to endorse a package of reforms which,
it hopes, will put it on the road to recovery. But if it really is to
survive then it has to prove that it is a credible alternative to an increasingly
staid and legislatively unadventurous DUP. If its’ delegates doesn’t
grasp the nettle next week, they won’t ever have the chance again
and we will end up with one unionist party by default rather than by design.
If
You Ask Me Archive | 
