Liberal Unionism? In Ulster? Why Not?

On balance, theGood Friday Agreement was (forgive me) a Good Thing. It should be possible to welcome the Agreement yet recognise that it has not delivered everything it promised. Not the least of its troublesome consequences has been the manner in which the centre-ground of Northern Irish politics has been hollowed-out. Time passes, however, and the moment for a viable alternative to the Sinn Fein-DUP double-act cannot, surely, be delayed forever. At least that’s what Robin Wilson suggests in the Belfast Telegraph today. This, perhaps unexpectedly, is the time for a New Ulster Unionism:

[N]ow the UUP – otherwise on its political death-bed – has a huge choice to make. In a normal society, liberal, socialist and (environmentally) Green progressive parties face a significant centre-Right party, which makes a reasoned case for moderate conservatism.

Any UUP member not persuaded that that is how the party should redefine itself to survive has to ask two questions: are there more moderate conservatives than sectarian bigots in Northern Ireland? And are there some Catholics ones? It’s a no-brainer.

If the UUP can re-constitute itself as such a secular political force, it could yet play a role in moving the Northern Ireland political axis away from its meaningless ethnic polarity – now defined more by collusion to concentrate power between the DUP and SF than by competition between them – onto a typical Left-Right spectrum.

As ex-UUP adviser Alex Kane has repeatedly argued, in that context a strategic decision to go into Opposition in the Assembly – rather than maintaining a short-term, myopic hold on an irrelevant single Executive seat – is the way to go.