Watch:
Availability:
Sorry, this programme is not available to watch again. (why?)
Last broadcast on Thu, 5 Nov 2009, 19:30 on BBC Two (Northern Ireland only).
Synopsis
The TUV - political party or pressure group? There's a look at the TUV's challenge to the DUP in North Antrim, plus a talk with Jim Allister ahead of his annual conference. The Alliance leader David Ford says he won't take the Justice Ministry unless commitments are given to move forward on the Shared Future agenda. But would he really turn it down?
If You Ask Me by Fionnuala O Connor
The SDLP are into a leadership contest, which means they've invited the world to scoff at the condition they're in. Here's a party with by far the most noble record of the major northern groups. Now it's in a sad state, and its ageing membership faces a painful choice.
Continued...
The clumsy way Mark Durkan laid out his exit may have been intended to propel Margaret Ritchie into the job, or at least to block Alasdair McDonnell. Ritchie duly declared. Though not before an unfortunate moment when she answered a jokey question on camera about the party's readiness for a female leader, with a "who me?" little-girl silly face.
Continued...
Having been the flinty minister, getting marks all round for slapping down UDA cheek, the minute she's in the frame for top job she goes all coy? The fact that one candidate is a woman is the least interesting thing about the contest.
Continued...
In front of the same camera, SDLP deputy leader McDonnell was asked if he agreed with Durkan that it was a bad idea to double-job at Westminster and Stormont. Behind the bonhomie, McDonnell is a brusque Glensman. Not at all, he said, there was lots of precedent. It was a glaring piece of defiance.
Continued...
When Ritchie began to stiffen her sinews and practise looking leaderly, the long grass parted with a swoosh and out bounded the bushy-tailed doctor. Now he's scouring the byways for support, a repeat of the barnstorm that made him deputy.
Continued...
SDLP loyalists have had a thin time. Their hero brought republicans in from the cold. John Hume held out the hand of friendship, and Gerry Adams gnawed it up to the elbow. Nothing has been the same since.
Continued...
The DUP and Sinn Fein agree on very little - but they made sure there wouldn't be an SDLP policing and justice minister. The formula for appointing ministers would have given the party the job. So their enemies suspended the formula. The SDLP said it wasn't fair, and simply sounded peevish.
Continued...
And now they must choose between someone who looks anxious all the time, and someone who looks anxious when he isn't in the spotlight.
Continued...
McDonnell's biggest impact came when on a split unionist vote he won the South Belfast Westminster seat. No wonder he thinks double-jobbing has merits. Party activists may well agree.
Credits
- Presenter
- Noel Thompson
- Producer
- Mary Kelly
Broadcast
-
Thu 5 Nov 200919:30
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~27~RS~){kind=small}