My great grandfather emigrated from Waterford to London during the famine. I have always been fascinated by Ireland and at university I specialised in Irish political and economic history. Recently I was given a tour of the Dail (parliament), and visited the Dublin office of the Irish Labour party and I spoke at length with staff and elected representatives.
I am extremely pleased and impressed with the progress made in Northern Ireland by all sections of the political divide. I do not want to scaremonger, or jinx the Northern Ireland project, but I am growing more and more concerned that bad fortunes for the Labour party in the UK threatens the progress made in Northern Ireland.
In my opinion, despite a similar and shared history, the Irish and UK Labour parties have never had a functioning working relationship. During the last Irish general election, Tony Blair even appeared in a party political broadcast for Bertie Ahern and Fianna Fail. Moreover, since peace has been brought to Northern Ireland, there has been much talk of mainstream Irish political parties of the Republic contesting seats in Northern Ireland.
Sinn Fein sees this as a betrayal. It is their feeling that they have done the hard work for the Republic and now mainstream parties will reap political dividends. Furthermore, Fianna Fail said recently that they want to work closer with the Northern Irish Socialist Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). The SDLP is one of our sister parties and we sit with the SDLP in the Party of European Socialists in the European Parliament. Since peace, David Trimble has become a Conservative peer. He recognises that with peace in Northern Ireland, there is no longer a need for the Ulster Unionist Party.
As the UK Labour party loses ground, the Conservatives are making relative gains. They are growing in confidence and reach. Some time ago the Conservatives launched a new ‘Conservatives Northern Ireland’ website. There have also been a number of shadow ministerial visits to Northern Ireland, most recently David Davis.
Northern Ireland needs time to heal. Like sand being kicked in the air, it takes time for sand the settle again. This is possibly, partly why local elections in Northern Ireland were recently postponed. This healing process could all be upset by the realities of the polls in the UK. As things get tighter in the UK, parties like the Conservatives will attempt to make Northern Irish gains. It is a political reality that whoever governs the UK in Westminster, could be decided in Northern Ireland. To this end the Conservatives have advertised the post of a Northern Ireland Development Officer.
So what should we do? Let Cameron gain seats in Northern Ireland as the true unionist party? Discuss mergers or coalitions with the SDLP? Involve the Irish Labour party via a memorandum of understanding?
At this point I can only recognise the problem, sadly not the answer. I would be interested in hearing other people’s views.
Cllr James Alexander is Labour’s parliamentary candidate for York Outer and blogs at www.time-4-change.org.uk