FORTY one years and three months ago (February 1974) the SDLP stood Ivan Cooper in Mid-Ulster and Denis Haughey in Fermanagh-South Tyrone in the Westminster election. Before the election both nationalist-majority constituencies had been represented by nationalist MPs (Bernadette Devlin and Frank McManus). The SDLP's intervention resulted in their displacement by anti-Sunningdale unionists (John Dunlop and Harry West). This was a really astute political move by the SDLP in the run-up to the anti-Sunningdale putsch three months late (sarcasm intended). Again, in the 1983 Westminster election the SDLP's Rosemary Flanagan ensured the defeat of another nationalist MP (Owen Carron) in Fermanagh-South Tyrone and the victory of the unionist Ken Maginnis. With the SDLP's cooperation in four subsequent elections Maginnis went on to hold the seat for 18 years - in fact as long as he wanted it.
In last week's election, again the presence of an SDLP candidate ensured nationalist defeat and unionist victory in Fermanagh-South Tyrone. The SDLP candidate got a paltry 2,732 votes and never had the slightest prospect of being elected but he got enough votes to cause the defeat of Michelle Gildernew. With continued SDLP cooperation Tom Elliott may have a tenure comparable to that of Ken Maginnis. Logic and common sense suggest that any policy faithfully pursued for more than 40 years must be giving the desired result. This policy of the SDLP never did, and never could, result in the election of an SDLP candidate. Instead, it repeatedly helped a unionist to defeat a nationalist in a nationalist-majority constituency. Perhaps the sarcasm in the reference to the astute political move, mentioned above, is misplaced and SDLP does stand for Semi-Detached Loyalist Party.
