Opinion

Analysis: Political impotence blunts Alliance conference passion

Alliance leader Naomi Long at the party's annual conference at the Stormont Hotel in Belfast. Picture by Arthur Allison
Alliance leader Naomi Long at the party's annual conference at the Stormont Hotel in Belfast. Picture by Arthur Allison Alliance leader Naomi Long at the party's annual conference at the Stormont Hotel in Belfast. Picture by Arthur Allison

NAOMI Long’s term as Alliance leader has been characterised by frustration.

Soon after she succeeded David Ford in October 2016, the executive collapsed as the perennially strained relationship between the DUP and Sinn Féin could no longer be sustained.

In the following spring’s Stormont election the party emerged buoyant having held its eight seats in a reduced assembly and secured its biggest percentage share of the vote for 30 years.

For a party that was being written off less than a decade earlier it was commendable performance, though its representation outside the ‘Belfast doughnut’ is still confined to a small handful of councillors.

But in the two years since the election, devolution has remained suspended, the voice of the Alliance leader and her fellow MLAs muted by the lack of an assembly.

The party has been vocal on Brexit, joining the north’s other pro-Remain parties in calling for the retention of a frictionless border and echoing the calls of its Liberal Democrat sister party for a second EU referendum.

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It has given some voice to that significant minority of unionists, albeit mostly the small ‘u’ kind, that voted to remain in the EU.

However, the absence of the institutions means its campaign has been largely rhetorical.

In her efforts to help get devolution restored, Mrs Long has put Secretary of State Karen Bradley to shame with unilateral efforts to get Sinn Féin and the DUP talking again but she’s only equipped to take this process so far before it grinds to halt.

Alliance’s modus operandi relies to a great extent on power-sharing of some description. It serves as the voice of moderation, helping forge compromise between Stormont’s dominant ideologies.

But without a functioning forum in which to conduct business, the party loses much of its effectiveness – hence Naomi Long’s deep frustration.

The forthcoming local government elections, where the party hopes to increase its tally of 32 councillors, gave an otherwise subdued conference some focus but the dominant themes of the mothballed institutions and the uncertainty around Brexit tempered much of the usual passion.