Opinion

Danger of civil war breaking out in divided SDLP

Brian Feeney

Brian Feeney

Historian and political commentator Brian Feeney has been a columnist with The Irish News for three decades. He is a former SDLP councillor in Belfast and co-author of the award-winning book Lost Lives

Alasdair McDonnell is determined to remain SDLP leader. Picture by Mal McCann
Alasdair McDonnell is determined to remain SDLP leader. Picture by Mal McCann

The SDLP isn’t just in turmoil. It’s so bad there’s a danger of civil war breaking out.

There have already been deep factional divisions in south Belfast for years between the McDonnell camp and the Hanna camp now represented in Stormont by Claire Hanna, daughter of former minister Carmel Hanna.

Is it mere coincidence that Alasdair McDonnell’s protege Fearghal McKinney, co-opted to the assembly ahead of Claire Hanna, has been nominated to challenge Dolores Kelly for deputy leader? Or is it just none too pretty retaliation for Kelly’s opposition to McDonnell and the challenge to his leadership? Which do you think?

All these tedious personality disputes are set to continue if McDonnell persists in clinging to the leadership despite the revolt among MLAs which burst into the open in the aftermath of the Westminster election. It’s unprecedented for senior figures in the party (or indeed any party) like former deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon and former leader Mark Durkan MP to tell the current party leader to go. If he doesn’t go, but worse if he scrapes a win against Colum Eastwood at this year’s party conference, the split will only grow.

The important figures who want rid of him will not start to love McDonnell if he defeats Eastwood. Furthermore, the never elected novice McKinney challenging Dolores Kelly will only exacerbate the divide.

McDonnell is one of those tragic figures who yearn for a job for years and then when they get it, can’t do it and don’t know what to do with it. He intrigued against Mark Durkan when he was leader and then when Margaret Ritchie was elected to replace him because she wasn’t Alasdair McDonnell he undermined her.

McDonnell campaigned as the great organiser and motivator but he has failed on both counts. The party’s share of the vote fell in last May’s election and in the local government elections in 2014 McDonnell didn’t hit the target of councillors he had predicted and publicised. The 2014 European election was the party’s worst ever result.

The Westminster result might have been worse if McDonnell hadn’t been side-lined from TV interviews and replaced with Mark Durkan who came out on top in several multi-party encounters in contrast to McDonnell’s train wrecks which had party members hiding behind their sofas. Yet he’s determined to fight on with that record?

Leaving aside those very evident failures the SDLP has been unable to produce a new idea for its role. No leader since Hume, least of all McDonnell, has been able to explain what the SDLP is for. It’s just plain stupid always to attack both Sinn Féin and the DUP in every statement. As Enoch Powell, who knew a thing or two about politics, used to say, never name an opponent because it only gives them a right of reply. Instead of constantly attacking two other parties why not constantly say what the SDLP’s position is on any matter? No one knows.

Aside from that basic flaw in the current approach there’s the fallacy of behaving as if the SDLP is on a par with the DUP and Sinn Féin. It’s not. It’s very much junior but figures like McDonnell don’t accept that and act as if nothing has changed and the SDLP is a major player. It’s not.

McDonnell’s seat vanishes in the coming boundary changes and the SDLP’s other two MPs exist only to give unionists someone to vote for to keep Sinn Féin out of South Down and Foyle. The SDLP will be lucky to win two assembly seats in Belfast next May. In short, continuing guaranteed decline. Yet no one in the SDLP shows any sign of cutting their coat according to their cloth.

Faced with these real existentialist challenges the party prefers to indulge in internecine squabbles. To paraphrase Henry Kissinger in another context, perhaps that’s why the infighting is so vicious. It’s because there’s so little to scrap over.

One thing is certain. If McDonnell hangs on in the face of such internal opposition and dismay the SDLP is facing a horrible result in the next assembly elections. There’s an iron law of politics and it’s this. People do not vote for divided parties.