Opinion

Brian Feeney: Attacking Sinn Féin has got the SDLP nowhere

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood. Picture by Hugh Russell
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood. Picture by Hugh Russell SDLP leader Colum Eastwood. Picture by Hugh Russell

SPEAKING in a panel discussion at the weekend, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said it would be difficult to persuade a lot of unionist people, “who had serious hurt and pain because of what the IRA did”, to vote for a united Ireland. Well, that seems pretty obvious.

There’s a basic misunderstanding involved here, however. Unionists will never vote for a united Ireland because they’re unionists. The clue is in the name. Read Alex Kane of this parish, who repeatedly points out that no matter how economically attractive the offer might be, he would always vote to remain in the UK because he’s a unionist.

There will be referendums north and south on Irish unity and those who vote unionist will lose, otherwise what’s the need for referendums?

Eastwood also extolled the virtues of the NHS, currently invisible to many thousands here, as a reason for people to vote to stay in the UK, but that’s entirely different from persuading unionists to stop being unionists. It’s a category error to equate the two, IRA campaign and NHS, as reasons not to vote for unity.

However, it’s par for the course. What was missing was the SDLP’s clear unequivocal position on Irish unity and steps thereto.

It seems obligatory for SDLP speakers to attack Sinn Féin (though Eastwood didn’t on this occasion) rather than promoting their own position on any matter. It’s obsessive, it’s repetitive, it’s tedious, it’s been constant for years.

Sometimes it’s just silly, such as trying to say Sinn Féin behaviour is the cause of DUP threatening to pull down the executive.

Enoch Powell said never to mention political opponents in speeches because it only gives them a chance to exercise their right of reply. You’ll notice SF seldom or never mentions the SDLP. They concentrate their assaults on their political enemy the DUP, even though it’s the SDLP that’s their political antagonist for votes.

For some reason no-one in the SDLP seems to have realised that persistently attacking Sinn Féin doesn’t work. They’ve been hammering away now through four leaders since John Hume. For a while they tried calling SF and the DUP ‘the problem parties’. No good. The voters didn’t agree and continued to vote in increasing numbers for both.

Is relentlessly attacking Sinn Féin a strategy or has it long since become merely a reflex reaction? If it’s a strategy does anyone in the SDLP think about its failure? Where has it got the party? The answer is nowhere.

Last weekend’s LucidTalk poll shows the SDLP is no longer one of what they call here ‘the four main parties’. They’re exactly where they were in November. Okay, one per cent down, but that doesn’t matter given the margin of error.

Do they take their cue from Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin, who never misses a chance to have a crack at SF in general or Mary Lou McDonald in particular. That’s been going well, hasn’t it? It’s done wonders for FF’s polling eh? Nearly as bad as the SDLP. Anyway, as a result of what appears to be SDLP strategy Sinn Féin here is now polling two and half times stronger than the SDLP. Why?

Is it because SF is an all-Ireland party and a power in the Dáil and the SDLP is obviously a six-county party? Is it because, given it’s restricted to the north, the SDLP has no unambiguous policy on Irish unity?

Is it because SDLP politics are wrong, conceived over 50 years ago for different purposes in different circumstances? Is it because of those 1960s politics that, after the Good Friday Agreement, the SDLP’s job was done?

Whatever the reason, no SDLP leader in the last 20 years has been able to explain to voters what the party is for. It’s no good intoning stuff like peace, reconciliation and justice. Like, who doesn’t want that?

What is certain is that blaming Sinn Féin for everything just doesn’t cut it with the voters.