Opinion

Fionnuala O Connor: Politicians need their wits about them as election looms

Alliance, led by Naomi Long (pictured), regularly line up alongside the Green Party, People Before Profit, as well as Sinn Féin and the SDLP. Picture: Mal McCann.
Alliance, led by Naomi Long (pictured), regularly line up alongside the Green Party, People Before Profit, as well as Sinn Féin and the SDLP. Picture: Mal McCann. Alliance, led by Naomi Long (pictured), regularly line up alongside the Green Party, People Before Profit, as well as Sinn Féin and the SDLP. Picture: Mal McCann.

The centre ground flits in and out of sight, and fashion.

A mirage that only causes frustration, a destination whose possible existence wins kind words from outsiders? In the narrow, over-ploughed north the centre’s dimensions are dubious, occupied over time by comparatively few hardy souls, present-day inhabitants hard to track. No wonder professing to woo it strains parties already on the skids.

The UUP and the SDLP have to hold their core votes and attract the non-voters and floaters that the hardline parties repel, so yes, they need to expand the centre ground. Moderation equals centre has been one assumption; aptly enough the last sudden political collapse was the ramshackle NI21.

Who was it said a fortnight or so ago that for all the predictions about May’s election, an ill-judged comment or daft behaviour could well change the climate? This time professed champion of moderation and media favourite Doug Beattie was most popular party leader one moment, the next ordering in sackcloth and ashes.

Then those disgusting tweets emerged from their pasts by three of Sinn Féin’s female MLAs. But as the voiced disapproval for them proved, weak stuff, northern SF is not aiming for the centre ground. If that centre does indeed contain potential voters sure of their Irishness but permanently repelled by today’s republican mainstream, and dismayed by SDLP inability to relate to southern politics.

Part of the audience didn’t care that the Ulster Unionist leader fell short on steering clear of loyalist paramilitarism and genuine centrism on the Irish language. Wasn’t he a decorated soldier of the Queen, working-class boy, a humorous way with him. When his tweet habits past and present caught attention, it wasn’t that photo op with Billy Hutchinson, Jim Allister and Sir Jeffrey Donaldson or opposition to legal backing for Irish that the outraged chorus urged him to disown. Those were ok, presumably.

But they aren’t. Which is one reason why the Alliance Party has re-positioned itself since the days when Anna Lo, gallant on facing down racism, fell over her feet on renaming streets in Irish, echoed later by Paula Bradshaw. Perhaps the increasing loyalist abuse Alliance take has cleared some fuzzy thinking. Now they line up alongside the Green Party, People Before Profit, as well as Sinn Féin and the SDLP. They will take more flak as this election campaign continues, essentially as covert united-Irelanders. They might as well sharpen up on that too.

How politicians relate to voters can be beyond the wit of party strategists sometimes bafflingly stubborn, plain cowardly or too clever by half. The winning recipe can even be beyond the effort of activists willing to knock doors and endlessly update registers; with their candidates in tow or in hailing distance down the street, ready to try convincing punters face to face. The SDLP may gamble that broadcasting fluency and friendly media helps make up for going door to door. And would more door-knocking woo the non-voting ‘centre’ anyhow?

Might voters in the age of Brexit and Covid be a work in progress? The centre of nationalist gravity is probably determined most, as ever, by the ugliness of unionist behaviour and latterly by the spectacle of its disintegration.

A bit more overt identification as Irish and focus on all-Ireland cooperation might help re-orient the SDLP. Northern Sinn Féin’s directionless coasting might be enough for people alienated all over again. Beattie looked as well fitted as any Ulster Unionist could be to weather the traditional unionist denunciation of anyone warmer than polite about Irish nationalism. But how the simple decent Doug persona would have played in May’s real poll is no longer worth considering.

Though often mean and sometimes vicious tweeting can clearly be fun. For teenagers, and adults who don’t tweet while drinking. As British politics welter through the embarrassment of Boris Johnson’s government, the north’s stagnant arrangements look more questionable than ever. Its politicians need their wits about them.