SDLP leader hopes to put a bruising election behind him, writes Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor
Mark Durkan takes to his feet at the SDLP conference in Belfast today to make the most pivotal speech of his short leadership.
He admits that his party and those who vote for it are somewhat "fazed and dazed" by the electoral bruising last November. He knows also he has to counter elements of disillusionment and frustration and he recognises the need to energise the SDLP by "renewing and re-presenting" it as a fighting political force. It is a party in need of "reality checks," he says.
In a series of candid admissions to The Irish Times on the eve of conference, Mr Durkan admits that the SDLP is organisationally ineffective, that fundraising needs a thorough re-examination and that the political message needs to be sharpened and delivered with greater clarity and determination.
Reeling from the loss of six Assembly seats, including those of well-known figures such as Dr Joe Hendron, the 43-year-old Derryman admits the party he has led since 2001 requires a clear and logical appreciation of its place in the new political landscape.
At this, the 33rd party conference, which was postponed from last November because of the Assembly poll, Mr Durkan says he wants a mandate to review the party constitution, to streamline its structures and to reinvent the funding mechanisms.
"This conference is the first major opportunity for the party from right across the North to come together, so it's hugely important." he says. "But it's also what the party says to itself in that context. That's as important as anything I say." He also stresses he needs to listen to his members. "What I have to do is address some of the issues - some organisational, some structural - but I also have to address our place in the wider landscape now." Party organisation, he says, "is not as good as it should be or needs to be".
"We need to get back to basics and conduct and shape the organisation so that it fits the challenge at hand." This means an overhaul of the branch structure, with each member and activist clear about what needs to be done.
A new constitution, adopted a few years ago, "hasn't really improved things". Mr Durkan's own branch is putting forward a motion to convene a special conference later this year to restructure the party and overhaul the deficient constitution.
Turning to last November's drubbing at the polls, he dwells on the positive. "If anything has come out of the post-election period, from people outside and inside the party, it is that people need the SDLP - and also that the SDLP needs people".
Such remarks have long been a Durkan trademark - but there appears to be a new bluntness from a man many criticise for being long-winded at times.
He does not yield to the temptation that the state of the party is due to John Hume's alleged lack of interest in party structures.
"I don't think it's fair to say [our problems] are the legacy of the previous leadership," he says. "They are the legacy of a sort of laissez-faire culture in the party." The implication is that this will have to change.
He's equally direct in challenging the belief of many in the ranks that the poor Westminster results in 2001 were some form of aberration.
"It's really a matter of making sure that everybody in the party knows the task is now delegated to them to put the party on the footing it needs, for us to shape up. It is not a matter of looking at things at headquarters."
It cannot be left to "an open, democratic structure where things are just left to whoever turns up at meetings" he says. Something called "strategic discretion" needs to be applied.
Another of his favoured "reality checks" relates to funding. It costs £10 to be a member of the SDLP. Headquarters then spends more than that amount communicating with each member. The former minister of finance recognises the absurdity of the position and vows to implement change whereby costs are better covered by the raising of funds. "We need to move up, not just a gear, but a number of gears."
If he gets the party structures he wants, then a more streamlined SDLP will be better placed to take on Sinn Féin.
And it is to Sinn Féin that much attention this weekend will be turned. Grassroots activists admit to bewilderment that the SDLP's opponents are cleaning up thanks to the peace process they believe they fostered.
This prompts frustration and cynicism and Mr Durkan fears that some of them are becoming cynical about themselves.
"Sinn Féin are trying to out-SDLP the SDLP. They have changed position, copied our language and our policies. They try to argue our logic. They have been on more roads to Damascus than the Syrian bus fleet."
He says the only response is for the SDLP to reclaim the message that others now portray as their own and to publicly question how Sinn Féin, which has tacked so much, can be trusted.
"We have to get over the fact that we have been vindicated, but not rewarded."
It's admitted that SDLP members find it tough accepting that their party has helped change the face of Ireland, produced one of the greatest statesmen in a century and still came a poor second in the last election.
"We have always believed what we now say," he claims by way of a swipe at Sinn Féin. "But we are in a new situation. Others have adapted and re-presented themselves - we have to recognise that this is a context for change. We have to re-present ourselves as well."