| If
You Ask Me
with Fionnuala
O Connor
Those shifting shapes you see these evenings aren't just
children dressed up for Hallowe'en. This soft autumn there are political
animals around who are trying out fresh markings. It
will be a while before it's clear, for example, how the SDLP's most faithful
voters feel about Margaret Ritchie declaring "No Surrender" at
an Ulster Unionist conference.
The south Down SDLP
woman has gone from a very local career to becoming the party's big
hitter, and in the last month she's shaken up Stormont.
It was a gamble for Mark Durkan to sacrifice the one executive post in
his gift. But worth it, if it built Ms Ritchie up to retain south Down
for the party in the next Westminster election. Then Eddie McGrady says
he's staying put.
Now the SDLP leader
has Fianna Fail padding up on Celtic Tiger paws offering the kind of friendship
any smaller beast would suspect.
And a hardworking
woman few recognised beyond Ballynahinch a while ago is the toast of polite
unionism. Hold on a minute - will that help the SDLP? The UUs are supposedly
considering electoral pacts with the DUP. Now Ms Ritchie is talking about
building SDLP-UU friendship.
That will do no harm
in south Down. Ulster Unionism is still in shock, though, from their last
Westminster outing: which way they turn next is anyone's guess.
But
ruffling the smugness of Sinn Fein and the DUP went down well. It was
a good SDLP moment when Martin McGuinness blustered that of course
he wouldn't give the UDA a penny and he agreed with Margaret Ritchie
- who'd "disappointed" him so much the previous week when she
"lost the run of herself".
It was plain she
had public opinion behind her when Nigel Dodds snapped that of course
his party opposed all paramilitaries. Sinn
Fein may have thought their own people would understand they had to
let Peter Robinson rubbish Margaret Ritchie, to 'consolidate' the
Executive.
Survival of
the fittest and all that. But Mr Robinson in full patronising mode is
not a pretty sight, any more than Ian Paisley Junior the lobbyist under
a Spotlight.
Sinn Fein voters
are more of a mixed bag than they used to be. And where's the big project
going? Republicans were already faltering before the grim recurrence of
violent death just over the border from south Armagh.
Mr McGuinness can
still strike a pose or two. Running an administration with limited
powers at close quarters with the DUP was never going to mean great
thoughts and grand vistas.
The SDLP has no big
beasts any longer and Ulster Unionists lost theirs long ago. The political
jungle is a funny place these days. In the clear light of peacetime, the
inhabitants look a little different - some more appealing, and still changing.
It may be Hallowe'en, but at Stormont the year's still young.
If
You Ask Me Archive | 
