SDLP conference: seeking recovery
Peter Cheney sums up the SDLP conference, where Alasdair McDonnell got off to a shaky start as leader. The party has dipped to a new low but members are determined to increase its standing again.
Posters of Patsy McGlone and Conall McDevitt greeted arriving delegates along the approach roads to the Ramada Hotel, while inside McGlone’s team was conspicuous in their green T-shirts. This promised to be a livelier SDLP conference than the norm.
In her final speech as leader, Margaret Ritchie claimed that “the people at the top have lost touch,” accusing Peter Robinson of being “too well insulated from the grinding hardship of citizens” while Martin McGuinness was “too consumed with aspirations of living in a palace in Dublin, to really care anymore.”
For SDLP achievements in government, she cited the house-building programme, and blocking the UDA-linked Conflict Transformation Initiative in 2007. Ritchie paid tribute to Alex Attwood for fighting Tory welfare reform. “And to think some people questioned why I gave him the job” was a clear nod to Patsy McGlone. Tellingly, Attwood returned the tribute in his concession speech, the only leadership candidate to name Ritchie.
A packed hall gathered to hear the result and the counts were declared in rapid succession. The new leader’s acceptance speech was well received, marking as it did “the proudest moment of my political life” for McDonnell. An SDLP recovery was not important for its own sake but also for “the future politics of this island”. In the place of an agreed Ireland, the DUP and Sinn Féin were dividing up the spoils like “Afghan warlords”.
As he thanked his wife Olivia, she moved forward and held his arm. Campaigning days had sometimes started at 8am and finished at 1.30am the next morning. He pledged to hit the road again, visiting every council area and constituency within three months.
Each candidate’s campaign put forward ideas to make the party more organised and better financed. The party prides itself on its openness and willingness to debate its internal workings, although that carries the obvious risk of appearing disorganised and needy.
McDonnell has pledged to listen to his former opponents’ ideas, which include a new public representatives group (McDevitt), working with other parties to submit petitions of concern (McGlone) and much closer links with the Irish Government (Attwood). Dolores Kelly was formally declared deputy leader, having been unopposed.
The new leader’s keynote speech was a presentational failure but party staff were frank about the reasons for the technical glitch (lights reflecting off a halting autocue) rather than trying to spin their way out.
He took the ‘bull in a china shop’ analogy “as a tribute to my reserves and my passion which tempered with wise counsel can produce an awful lot”. The party had become “hypnotised” by the Good Friday Agreement which was now stalled by the DUP and Sinn Féin: “Why should these sectarian turkeys vote for a non-sectarian Christmas?”
His organisational style had been trialled in South Belfast in 2005 and produced a “greatly enhanced performance” in 2010. agendaNi witnessed an impressive canvassing operation in the constituency during the general election but the wider electoral trends are downward. Members do recognise, though, that McDonnell has a stronger media profile than Ritchie.
The SDLP has fallen alongside the UUP but arguably is better placed to recover. Members were energised by a four-candidate leadership election (conducted without the glare of publicity) and the party is better than the Ulster Unionists at bringing younger activists into elected posts.
Statistically, it lost 66,993 voters between the heady days of 1998 (when it topped the poll) and May’s Assembly election. Most of those walked away during the turbulent days of the first Executive and results since then have varied around the 100,000-mark.
At the 2010 general election, it polled 110,970 votes: a slight increase from 105,064 in 2007. However, this dropped to 94,286 first preferences this May, resulting in the net loss of two seats. Sinn Féin, in contrast, received 178,224 first preferences.
The party polled slightly more strongly at local government (with 98,724 first preferences) but lost 14 councillors compared to 2005.
Sinn Féin easily outflanks the SDLP on all-island politics. However, its participation at Westminster (as constitutional nationalists have done since Daniel O’Connell) is a practical advantage. Highlighting a restriction on eastern European voters, Brid Rodgers commented that SDLP MPs “can use their muscle to try and things changed,” adding: “There’s not much point in sitting outside and crying.”
After focusing on keeping Sinn Féin onboard during the peace process, the Irish Government is understood to be sympathetic to the SDLP’s situation. The frankness of so many members and activists in discussing the party’s problems indicates that they think the party has little to lose, and can no longer hold on to the ‘glory days’ of John Hume and Seamus Mallon.
The McDonnell agenda
“We are in danger of being unable to fight elections because we simply don’t have the money” reads one warning in McDonnell’s stark pitch to SDLP members. An expert commission will report to a special organisational conference within three months. McDonnell’s first 100 days should also see a major public seminar on economic regeneration and the setting up of a dedicated election directorate.
Clearly identified party representatives will be appointed in the three Antrim constituencies, Fermanagh and South Tyrone and Strangford.
In a candid assessment, his election leaflet says the current organisation “cannot deliver the votes we want and need”. A “handful of active branches” are prospering but many “hardly ever meet”. The party had missed a generation and “is paying dearly for it now”. Getting votes in ballot boxes is seen as central as people “like to back winners”. His aim of 20 Assembly seats was last achieved in 1998; the party slipped to 18 in 2003.
McDonnell stresses social democracy but also warns that “Block Grant Politics” will squeeze the poorest. All shades of nationalism and unionism need to discuss the economic future. And with McDonnell expecting the SDLP to lead on this, the party plans to stay in government.
