Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

Chris Brown’s Twitter feed reveals that Margaret Ritchie is scheduled to hold a press conference in Downpatrick this afternoon. We must assume that the new SDLP leader intends to announce her intention to stand for the South Down Westminster seat, vacated by Eddie McGrady, who is retiring. Ritchie’s decision is puzzling, whichever way you look at it. Previous leader, Mark Durkan, resigned his leadership because he rejects the notion that the SDLP can be led from anywhere other than the Northern Ireland Assembly. His party likes to stress its commitment to ‘this region’ and its institutions, as if they stand alone from the larger political framework of the United Kingdom. Yet, should Ritchie win a Westminster seat, and refuse to stand down as an MLA, the SDLP’s commitment to ending double-jobbing will be questioned. After all, Alasdair McDonnell, the MP for South Belfast, has expressed his reluctance to give up one of his posts. Like the SDLP, the DUP made some initial noises abou...

There is more or less unanimous agreement, in theory, that double jobbing should be brought to an end. However the DUP has hinted that it will backtrack on a previous commitment to abolish its dual mandates by 2011. Similarly, SDLP MP and MLA, Alistair McDonnell has indicated that he is content to double job for the foreseeable future. Clearly Northern Ireland’s politicians cannot be trusted, on their own initiative, to bring an early end to double and triple jobbing. The Conservative leader, David Cameron, has already pledged to impose a solution as regards dual mandates, should he become prime minister. But there is no reason why Northern Ireland’s involvement in the party political mainstream need wait for the general election in order to pay dividends. The Tories have proposed a series of amendments to the Northern Ireland Assembly Bill which would immediately offer a strong disincentive against continued double jobbing. Under the amendments, proposed by Shadow Northern I...

David Campbell and Tim Lewis, chairmen of the Ulster Unionist and Northern Ireland Conservative Parties respectively, released a joint statement last week, explaining the process by which joint parliamentary candidates will be chosen. To summarise, each Conservative or UU association in a given constituency will shortlist one prospective candidate. David Cameron and Sir Reg Empey will, at this stage, have the power to veto any nominee to whom they particularly object. The joint committee will then be asked to draw up a final list of preferred candidates from those hopefuls who have successfully negotiated the first two steps. Finally the Ulster Unionist Executive and the Northern Ireland Conservative Council will each be asked to ratify all the individual candidates. This procedure at least has the merit of clarity and it should, theoretically, produce a list of moderate, agreed contenders, shorn of any especially contentious personalities . There is also scope for disagreement a...

Ahead of his visit to Northern Ireland today, David Cameron has announced that the Conservative party intends to end dual mandates before the 2011 Assembly elections. In an article in this morning’s Belfast Telegraph the leader of the opposition will indicate that his government could legislate to this effect, after the general election, should other parties in Northern Ireland refuse to accept that double jobbing should be brought to an end. Cameron’s article reflects comments which he made in a speech to the Scottish Conservative party conference, last week. He is adamant that representing one’s constituents at Westminster must be a full time job. “Our new electoral force as Conservatives and Unionists has explicitly stated that “the holding of joint mandates will not be permitted”. I would prefer all the Northern Ireland parties to respond to the public’s justified anger over politicians’ failures and reach a similar voluntary agreement to end all dual mandates before the 2011...