Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

I spent the weekend in icy Fermanagh, and not at the Ulster Unionist conference.  Ironically, if the cliché rings true, half the County enjoyed subsidised transport in the other direction. Still, reportedly 400 delegates heard Tom Elliott deliver his speech at the Ramada Hotel in Belfast, whereas just shy of 1,000 crowded into the Waterfront Hall to elect him leader, so perhaps the Enniskillen fleet wasn‘t quite so well-filled this time. The speech is carried on the UUP website and it reads reasonably well, although the Belfast Telegraph reports that the delivery was stilted.  In contrast, Alan from Belfast thinks that Elliott is getting more assured.  Perhaps both are fair comment. In terms of content there are positives and negatives in the text.  To allay critics who accuse Elliott of being a ’dinosaur’, he makes strenuous efforts to define his unionism in positive terms.  It is grounded in ’pluralism and an equality of citizenship and opportunity’, t...

Unfortunately I'll not be in Belfast to cover the Ulster Unionist conference this year.  The party meets at the Ramada Hotel, with Tom Elliott delivering his first key note speech as leader.   It's fair to say that he needs to produce something fairly startling in order to truly grasp the voting public's imagination in advance of next year's elections.   In the pre-conference broadcast, the UUP introduces some of its Assembly candidates, including 'young guns' like Rodney McCune, Jo-Anne Dobson and Lesley Macaulay.  It's by no means a bad effort.

At Ultonia, Lee is dismissive .  At Northern Ireland Centre-Right, Seymour Major is still in the throes of ecstasy .  My take on Cameron’s conference speech is somewhere down the middle. Certainly I didn’t feel that this address featured the rhetorical pyrotechnics which the Tory leader has occasionally produced.  It felt a little laboured, it didn’t depart substantially from the script, and given that it was delivered by the first Conservative prime minister since May 1997, it wasn’t even received that rapturously by the Tory faithful. In today’s Belfast Telegraph, which is not yet online, I consider Cameron’s references to Northern Ireland.  The headline ’Fine words, true.  But do you really get us, David?’ is not really an accurate reflection of the article's content. As a commentator, rather than a politician, I’m not restrained from saying that the Conservatives don’t need to ’get us’ and if they do finally 'get us' it will be to our detriment. ...

Before we consign the Ulster Unionist conference to the archives for another year, there are a couple of points worth addressing, which have been rather sidelined by the thorny issue of agreed candidates and the small, ancient cadre of UCUNF dissenters. The leader’s speech touched on more substantive policy considerations than commentators have generally acknowledged. Long sections were, after all, devoted to the economy, health and education. Indeed a significant, and strangely ignored, portion of his address was concerned with policing and justice, which has dominated political opinion pages for a number of months. It is surprising that more attention has not been paid to Sir Reg Empey’s remarks on this topic. The Ulster Unionist party, its leader insisted, is not opposed, in principle, to the devolution of justice powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly. It is, however, intensely anxious about a process dictated by a deal, “concocted privately between the DUP and Sinn Fein”....

Ladies and Gentlemen: Thank you for coming. I am delighted that so many of you are here today, demonstrating your commitment to the Party and the Union. As I have said on other occasions the grassroots of the UUP are the backbone of the party. I’m also very pleased that William Hague agreed to be our guest speaker … and I am grateful to him for taking time out of a very busy schedule to fly over for this conference. And can I also welcome Owen Paterson and other members from the Conservative Party locally. Thank you, too, to our Conference Committee, chaired by Terry Wright. And especially to Hazel Legge, our staff at HQ, our public relations and research teams who did so much of the background preparation. I wish to thank also all our public representatives; Lady Hermon MP and her colleagues in the Upper House who keep the Ulster Unionist flag flying in Parliament; our MLAs and Councillors, who represent this Party so well across the Province. I cannot let the occasion pass without pa...

It’s a huge pleasure to be back in this great city of Belfast and to be addressing your party conference as a Conservative and as a committed Unionist. As a Unionist I believe with conviction that the future of all four parts of country lies together as one United Kingdom. I believe that in an uncertain world our country remains a great force for good and that together the United Kingdom achieves much more than would ever be the case if we were apart. And I believe in a United Kingdom that is tolerant, inclusive and diverse, at ease with its past and confident about its future. Today, I want to talk to you about a Conservative approach to foreign policy and Britain’s role in the world. I want to set out why the United Kingdom so desperately needs the change that only the election of a Conservative government can bring about. And I want to explain how Northern Ireland can shape the future destiny of our country by helping to get rid of this discredited Labour government and putting Davi...

UUP Conference 2009

As I intimated in the post below, the UUP is set to hold its 2009 conference, tomorrow, at the Europa Hotel Belfast. Three Thousand Versts, in conjunction with Open Unionism , will be covering the keynote speeches live. The Coveritlive feed will appear above, providing real time updates from the hall, as William Hague, Michael McGimpsey and Sir Reg Empey deliver the key addresses. Follow the action on Twitter @3000Versts and @openunionism . We’ll pick up contributions #uupconf2009 .

This morning the Ulster Unionist leader will emphasise the genuine commitment to Union which has led David Cameron to the UCUNF deal. As he addresses Conservative conference Sir Reg Empey will tell delegates, “The simple truth of the forthcoming General Election is that David Cameron probably doesn’t need a single Ulster Unionist vote or seat to get him over the threshold of Number 10….. Therefore, it seems fair to conclude that David’s interest in Northern Ireland, the Union and the Ulster Unionist Party is not a short-term mathematical calculation.” It is a point which has frequently been overlooked as opponents attempt to question the Conservative leader’s unionist credentials. It is often implied that Cameron will readily submit to centrifugal forces, threatening to tear apart the Kingdom, if he comes to power at Westminster. Empey is correct to contend that there is no such subterfuge. David Cameron is a unionist whose instinct is to defend the territorial integrity of the Uni...

Heresy is the theme for Burke’s Corner’s coverage of the Tory conference, and today the shibboleth BC chooses to transgress is the notion that Conservatives should always advocate tax cuts. Yesterday George Osborne gave a speech which offered a defence of progressive taxation, as a justifiable obligation, levied to the end of a fair and functioning society. As far as Brian is concerned, free market liberalism is not the only, or even the main strand, which comprises modern conservatism, and although the shadow chancellor ‘genuflected in the direction of the tabernacle of low taxes’ he is edging towards a more authentic vision, acknowledging that slashing taxes is not always a free standing virtue. This blog has previously stressed the importance of the Conservative party keeping distance between its modern incarnation and its Thatcherite past. Although Burke’s Corner argues persuasively that combating budget deficit now represents ‘the great cause of conservatism’, it is vital t...

Following Vince Cable’s contribution to the genre, Comment is Free carries a further instalment of ‘Tory Apocalypse’ fiction, timed to coincide with the party conference. Because Scots’ nationalists don’t like Conservatives, the tale is told, and because a Conservative government would be obliged to seek cuts, the UK is bound to break up, should the party win a general election. You are, no doubt, familiar with the fantasy; the party of Union presiding over the Union’s untimely demise. It rests upon the premise that a Cameron administration would not prioritise the integrity of the United Kingdom, as it formulates policy, and it assumes that a Tory government would pursue cuts as zealously as its opponents claim. It is my suspicion that, in practice, a centrist Conservative treasury will economise less fiercely than the party itself cares to admit. There will be cuts, as there are already under Labour, and there will certainly be a radical change in emphasis for public services,...

It is a shame that the Conservative conference gets underway this morning under something of a cloud, cast by the Lisbon Treaty. It is the Tories’ chance to set out, in detail, domestic policy which the party hopes will carry it in to government. The agenda focuses on themes which David Cameron would wish to emphasise: reform of a discredited political system, repair of an amoral, debt burdened economy, the broken society and how to mend it, the Union and its maintenance. In the aftermath of the Republic of Ireland’s treaty referendum, however, the media, and arguably elements of Cameron’s own party, remain preoccupied with Europe. Although this blog has argued that the Conservative leader’s instincts on the EU are sound, it has also recorded scepticism as regards Cameron’s strategies. The construction of a non-federalist, centre right bloc, intended to challenge the christian democratic continental consensus, was a laudable aim. Conferring a degree of legitimacy upon populist, ...