STORMONT'S opposition parties’ desire to “make Northern Ireland work” will help them overcome glaring ideological differences, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has said.
Speaking as he addressed the Ulster Unionist conference in Belfast on Saturday, the Foyle MLA said the SDLP was already cooperating with its fellow opposition party and would continue to do so.
“Only this week we have scrutinised and offered solutions to ongoing emergencies in housing, homelessness and in our health service,” he said.
“That will continue and expand during the course of this mandate.”
Mr Eastwood highlighted the obvious ideological differences between the two parties and how there would never be universal agreement between them.
“The commitment to cooperation does not mean absolute unanimity or uniformity – and nor should it,” he said.
“Let me state the obvious: we are different parties with different policies and different visions of the future. Our Irish nationalism and your unionism will not seamlessly fit any time soon.”
He noted how his party was “determined to retain the benefits of the EU and its membership across this island”.
But the SDLP leader said there were areas where their aims could converge.
"However, this difference does not diminish our ability to pursue the commonality of our immediate cause,” he said.
“Both the SDLP and the Ulster Unionists share the common ground of wanting to make Northern Ireland work – that’s a healthy common ground to hold for today and tomorrow.”
Mr Eastwood said that against a background of plummeting confidence in the the north’s devolved institutions the public remained to be convinced that that the Stormont executive could “deliver substantial difference”.
“The biggest challenge of the official opposition is to begin the process of proving that our devolved institutions contain a power and importance beyond the maintenance of peace,” he said.
He said the UUP and SDLP could challenge the status quo by “embracing the politics of partnership and cooperation”.
