SDLP LEADER Margaret Ritchie has used her first leader’s address to the party’s annual conference to lay down markers against merger with any southern political party and against any form of electoral pact with Sinn Féin in northern elections.
She also called on “centre-ground” unionists to work with the SDLP after next May’s Assembly election to provide better government.
Recalling her rejection of Sinn Féin’s offer to run single nationalist candidates in last May’s Westminster elections, she said: “You cannot create a better society in the North by driving people into the sectarian trenches . . . we are not interested in the tired tribal politics of the past.”
There was “no credible argument” for a pact with Sinn Féin, she added, asking: “How can we enter any tribal or sectarian pacts that would simply undermine everything we stand for?”
On the question of merger with one or other of the Dáil parties, she said: “In the long term there may well be significant political realignment on this island and the SDLP may well be part of it. But we are not at that point yet. Also, any merger with a major southern party would effectively mean the end of the SDLP, and I believe with that, crucially, the disappearance of the unique brand values we bring to Irish politics. So we have ruled it out for now.”
Her speech majored on political centrism throughout Ireland, referring to “the centre” eight times and portraying Sinn Féin as sectarian. In a reference to Sinn Féin she said: “It is true that others have adopted SDLP policies as their own and we no longer have the obvious differentiator of non-violence. There are therefore, technically, two constitutional nationalist parties in the North” but “a world of difference between the SDLP and Sinn Féin”.
Her party was “progressive”, she said, whereas Sinn Féin was a flag-waving party that made unrealistic claims of achieving unity by 2016. “They are chained to the past, resentful in the present and offer little hope for the future.”
Her party was committed to making a success of the Northern institutions and economy. “Other nationalists don’t care about the Northern Ireland economy because their sole obsession is waiting for the time when Northern Ireland is over.”
She added: “Sinn Féin are nowhere on economic policy or thinking. They are regarded as a joke south of the Border and they have a leader who said the economy was ‘not important’. ” She castigated Sinn Féin over its stance on a genuinely shared society. “That means a society that is not only non-violent, but which welcomes and embraces different traditions and actively sets out to end segregation and division.”
The SDLP’s opponents, in contrast, used Irish culture as a “political weapon” and “if scratched are every bit as sectarian as their opposite numbers in loyalism”.
“SDLP progressive nationalists see unity as a coming together of strong partners, North and South, and not a hostile takeover of a weak North with a demoralised unionist majority”.
Turning to the Executive, Ms Ritchie said First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness had failed the electorate and had “performed abysmally”. She also called on the British and Irish governments to stop backing Sinn Féin-DUP demands at every turn. “Please do not stand in the way as the centre ground recovers.”
Without mentioning any other Stormont party by name, she looked to a centrist revival at next May’s Assembly election. “I say there is scope for the centre ground to regain the centre of government, and I want to say to the unionist parties that we are ready to work with them to move on to the next horizon.”
Recalling Pope Benedict’s recent visit to Britain, she mocked the First Minister “who refuses to meet the queen because the pope might be there” and the Deputy First Minister “who won’t meet the pope because the queen might be there.”
“How is that representing our government on the big stage? They should be ashamed.”
Appealing for a big effort ahead of the next election, she said: “We have two parties running the North who are not fit to do the job. Our people deserve better.”