McCrea is the candidate capable of delivering change.
With the much touted 'third man' failing to emerge in the UUP leadership contest, it now appears that the line-up will be Elliott vs. McCrea. In the Belfast Telegraph Alex Kane penned a gloomy piece which suggests that neither candidate is capable of holding together the Ulster Unionist 'coalition'.
It is true that the party's prognosis is grim, whoever takes charge. Sir Reg Empey has to take responsibility for UCUNF's failure, but at least he made a serious attempt to carve out a new role for the UUP in unionist politics. Neither candidate, so far, has articulated anywhere near so radical a plan for the party's future.
If, however, the leader is to be either Basil McCrea or Tom Elliott, only McCrea can offer anything which comes close to a prospectus for change. Elliott has styled himself as the consensus candidate, but he cannot hide the fact that he represents the more traditional wing of the party and its values.
Of course there is no guarantee that McCrea can appeal to new voters and expand unionism's appeal beyond its historical base either but at least he intends to try. Elliott can only hope to shore up the party's existing supporters and target an improvement in its former heartlands.
The UUP has to grasp, once and for all, how serious its position is. This leadership election represents a gamble - whether to 'stick or twist'. Elliott might be able to manage the party's decline, deliver 14-15 MLAs and a decent representation in local councils. The Ulster Unionists can be a junior, politer partner of the DUP in the future under Elliott.
McCrea can, if he shows determination, deliver a party with a modern sensibility and a genuinely moderate unionist ethos. He won't guarantee an immediate revival at the polling booth, but he does offer a different style of unionism.
The question is, has the UUP reached rock bottom, or does it need to fall even further?
Comments
The other is that assuming the wider UUP franchise realises it if/when it does hit the bottom, will it have the nous to change (or rather, take) direction?
Will people within carry on with tradition for tradition sake?
Where the UUP a properly functioning political dynamic surely the need for radical change would have been grasped from within by now?
You don't say?
McCrea seems cooler on the Conservative link than Elliott - who says he wants to retain it in a form that gives the UUP a bit more autonomy. Wouldn't that factor into your analysis Chekov?
So where have the UUP voters gone? overwhelmingly to the DUP, where many of them aren't that happy, but don't see a strong viable alternative in the UUP as yet and certainly dont want TUV politics, they are traditional voters who like things told straight but are sick of DUP hipocracy.
Under Tom Elliott we can win many of them back, and I believe can also reach out to the biggest group of non voters, the "working class" who often voted DUP because they liked the down to earth straight talking Paisley, even if they hated much of his right wing policy. With the DUPs change many have drifted away, and just dont vote, they will only come out and vote if it is clear who they are voting for, slick media performances don't mean a jot to them, they prefer black and white.
You obviously don't know Basil.
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