Stakeholder

IN A little-reported but well-received speech at the weekend, the SDLP assembly member Patsy McGlone claimed that the last election results in the Republic of Ireland proved that the Sinn Fein train had come to a halt.

Mr McGlone said Sinn Fein, which says it wants to become a ‘persuader’ for a united Ireland to unionists has failed to persuade fellow Irish citizens of their argument.

He particularly singled out the global travels of the Sinn Fein president for criticism. Mr McGlone said Mr Adams should concentrate on the shortcomings of his party in Ireland.

These are audacious criticisms. After all, in the recent European elections in the north, Sinn Fein romped home, albeit on a reduced vote. In west Belfast, despite the chronic economic conditions presided over by Mr Adams’s 20-year incumbency, it is the SDLP that struggles to maintain a presence on the electoral ticket.

While Sinn Fein support grows in the north, the SDLP vote remains static.

Sinn Fein in government appears to have a positive working relationship with its DUP counterparts.

The SDLP relationship with the Ulster Unionists always seemed more mutually distrustful.

The government relationship between Sinn Fein and the DUP appears less about power-sharing and more about power carve-up. While the outworking of that relationship has left some republicans feeling marginalised, well over a third of unionists remain to be convinced about government with Sinn Fein at all. So when it comes to collateral damage, Sinn Fein fares better than the DUP.

Central to Mr McGlone’s argument is that Sinn Fein has a lot of persuading to do at home before being taken seriously by the Irish electorate outside of Northern Ireland. And he is right.

Sinn Fein was not able to benefit from the anti-government feelings in the Republic of Ireland. Sinn Fein’s economic policies are close to what George Bush once described as ‘voodoo economics’.

In fairness to Sinn Fein in recent years, the party has become a fast learner and its suspicions about the business community are not borne out by the relationships between their ministers in the northern executive and the north’s business lobby. Yet the electorate in the Republic remains to be convinced.

Nonetheless, the task of persuading does not fall easily on to the lap of the SDLP either. Mr McGlone’s criticisms of Sinn Fein could equally apply to the SDLP. It is still working through its post-conflict community role, its internationalism and its nationalism.

To date the SDLP has not established a credible working framework or relationship with the Ulster Unionists that would give the Northern Ireland electorate a choice of lead partners in any new executive that could potentially replace the DUP/Sinn Fein axis.

This is as much the fault of the Ulster Unionists as the SDLP but without better coordination between the two, the public will not be persuaded that it is worth changing the drivers of the executive bus.

Margaret Ritchie’s credible, cross-community image as a minister and her speech last year to the Ulster Unionist conference point to one formula, which may work between the two parties.

The SDLP’s position on grammar schools and selection alienates them from a section of their traditional support base within the Catholic community and a limited but significant number within unionism tempted to at least transfer to the SDLP.

With some notable exceptions such as Mark Durkan and Alasdair McDonnell, the SDLP has some way to go in persuading the business community that it is a natural home for entrepreneurs. There are those in the SDLP still tinged with the leftist rays of a red sky who remain convinced that tilting at the socialist rainbow is vote-catching.

These are the people who probably hang sun-catchers in their windows and buy Joan Baez records.

But a disengaged, growing aspirant class in the nationalist community remains the unclaimed electoral prize.

For the moment both the SDLP and Sinn Fein remain particular political phenomena that have little resonance outside the north east of Ireland.

Sinn Fein has an all-island mechanism but not the policies to change that. On the other hand the SDLP has still to identify its mechanism to achieve an all-island presence – though its polices are more attractive.

Mr McGlone is right to identify the issue of who in the nationalist family is best placed to wear the mantle of ‘persuader’ for a new Ireland. It is as if the cloth has been chosen but neither the tailor nor the model has shown up.