JUST as the five-month impasse in Northern Ireland’s power-sharing executive was finally cracked, the Ulster Unionist Party took a step back 25 years by reforming its official ties with the Conservative Party. Meanwhile, with the tide of public opinion rapidly rising against the seeming powerlessness of the Stormont government in the face of the horrendous credit crunch and biting economic downturn, the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein coalition has unveiled a series of measures aimed at buying back popularity.
There are four main measures. Domestic water charges are to be put on hold until 2010 – the same year as the expected Westminster general election. The rules on rural house building – known as the dreaded PPS14 – are to be relaxed. This will be popular with the North’s extensive farming community. The end of prescription charges is sanctioned – a move that will be particularly welcomed by single parents. Approval for a new education authority has been given – the present education system is bogged down in red tape.
The main stumbling block, which prevented executive meetings taking place for more than four months, has been the devolving of policing and justice back to North Ireland – a situation which has not existed since March 1972 under the original Stormont parliament.
Now it is thought that the opportunity to run the proposed new ministry for policing and justice will be offered to the centrist Alliance Party, with South Antrim MLA and party leader David Ford and East Belfast MLA and deputy leader Naomi Long the frontrunners.
However, the kick-starting of executive meetings could be followed by a violent backlash from both loyalist and republican dissidents. Republicans opposed to the peace process have been trying to spark a violent reaction from loyalists by attacking halls belonging to the exclusively Protestant Orange Order. Anti-power sharing Unionists, especially those involved with the dissident loyalist terror group, the Orange Volunteers, have been targeting halls belonging to the overwhelmingly Catholic Gaelic Athletic Association.
Meanwhile, latest move forward by the executive came as the Tory Party in Britain announced that it is rekindling its formal pact with the UUP. This will be in operation for next year’s European poll as well as future Westminster, Northern Ireland Assembly and super council elections.
The Tory/UUP link effectively moves the parties structurally back a quarter of a century when the two parties existed as a single movement – the Conservative and Unionist Party. It was Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s decision in 1985 to sign the Anglo-Irish Agreement which led to the UUP severing the link a few years later, in protest at Dublin being given a role in running Northern Ireland’s affairs.
The reforming of the link is seen as Ulster Unionists attempting to mirror the DUP’s working relationship with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour Party. Brown was able to rely on the Peter Robinson-led DUP to secure a victory during the controversial House of Commons debate on 42 day’s detention without trial.
The UUP hopes the Tory link will help persuade loyalist voters to return to the its camp. Given the intervention of the hardline anti-power sharing Traditional Unionist Voice movement, there is the real chance that the UUP could win back around three seats lost to the DUP and SDLP at the 2005 general election. But it will have to proceed cautiously so as not to offend its influential labour faction. Already, right-wingers in the UUP want to use the Tory link to revamp their pressure group, the Ulster Monday Club, which was once one of the most powerful pressure groups in the party – boasting four MPs and numerous councillors.
However, it may be recalled that the London-based National Monday Club was suspended from the Tory Party amid allegations of racism. The Ulster branch decided to disband even though there was no evidence of racist or fascist infiltration within its own ranks.
A UUP spokesman said of the new relationship with the Tories: “The executive committee of the Ulster Unionist Party has overwhelmingly endorsed the creation of a Conservative and Ulster Unionist joint committee to oversee and facilitate co-operation between both parties.”
The joint committee will “bring forward proposals on manifesto commitments and the branding of candidates, ensuring that the heritage and appeal of both parties are respected, and that the popular appeal to the whole Northern Ireland electorate is maximised It will produce a substantial report at the end of January and it will operate entirely on consensus of both parties.”
Even if the UUP emerges with fewer Commons seats than the DUP after the next general election, the Tory link could ensure any government led by David Cameron would be able to invite UUP MPs to participate in running the Northern Ireland Office. However, given the so-called “Brown bounce” regarding the economy, a narrow Labour victory in 2010 could allow Brown to reward the DUP with a similar role. Whatever the electoral outcome in 2010, the road to normal national politics in the north of Ireland has been taken.
