A “new normal” is emerging in Northern politics and people “want an end to the same old battles and the same old arguments”, the SDLP leader has told his party’s conference.
“Our people deserve far better than a choice between bad government and no government,” Colum Eastwood said.
He also warned the current political crisis at Stormont was a major stumbling block to constitutional change on the island of Ireland and that the alternative could be direct rule from London.
The SDLP’s rescheduled party conference - which was postponed following the death of the DUP Assembly member Christopher Stalford last month - took place at the Seamus Heaney HomePlace in Bellaghy, Co Derry on Friday.
Mr Eastwood was deeply critical of the records of the DUP and Sinn Féin in government and said the forthcoming Assembly election on May 5th offered the chance to “break the cycle of crisis and collapse” which had characterised Stormont.
The DUP Assembly member Paul Givan resigned as first minister last month as part of his party’s campaign against the Northern Ireland protocol. Under Stormont rules Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Féin ceased to hold office as deputy first minister, and the Executive can only function in a limited capacity.
‘Desperation tactic’
Mr Eastwood said the DUP was “solely to blame” for the latest political crisis and described Mr Givan’s withdrawal from the Northern Executive as a “desperation tactic”.
He said the DUP “collapsed the Executive because they saw their own support collapsing”. However, he added that Sinn Féin “can’t escape from their responsibility for the failures of their last 15 years.
“People are fair minded, but they won’t be fooled. They haven’t forgotten that not so long ago they collapsed our government for three years.”
The SDLP leader warned that “collapsed institutions and collapsed relationships in the North are a major blockade to a new Ireland”. He said that for his party “self-government at Stormont is a massive part in the journey to the self-determination of choosing a new future in a new Ireland”.
He warned that the alternative to making government in the North work was direct rule, which was “barely worth thinking about”.
“If nothing changes, if the same old patterns persist, then we should be crystal clear about the choice we are making,” he said.
“We will be inviting a man like Boris Johnson in to run this place,” he continued, adding that come election time he was confident “our people will vote to ensure it doesn’t happen”.
Election prospects
Mr Eastwood was similarly confident about the party’s prospects in the election, saying that in comparison to other parties it was “Premier League versus Sunday League” and it was “by far the best team of SDLP candidates fighting an election since the founding generation of our party inspired a wave of change that swept away this state’s status quo”.
In Foyle, where the party currently has two MLAs and aims to take a third, he said the SDLP had “confounded the critics and the commentators in Derry before” and he “absolutely believed we can do it again and bring home three outstanding MLAs”.
Mr Eastwood pledged that immediately following the election the SDLP would seek to release an additional £300 million of funding that he said ministers could not access because of the collapse of the Executive. He said the party would support a minimum of a 6 per cent pay rise for healthcare workers.
He received a standing ovation from delegates following his speech and was clapped and cheered as he was joined on the stage by his wife and two young daughters.
