The questions the SDLP has avoided asking for 15 years can be avoided no longer.
NEW McATEER TEST: The SDLP membership needs to get real. No, it doesn’t have a messaging problem. It has an actual problem: What problem does the SDLP solve?
SDLP leadership
Why the battle over the SDLP’s leadership is worth paying attention to…
So Seamus Mallon backs Colum Eastwood to be the next leader of the SDLP. That should throw a predatory cat or two amongst the political pigeons (although in fact it can’t have been that unexpected). The SDLP leadership race has been quiet this time round. Of course that was also true at the beginning of the summer long contest for the leadership of the UK Labour party, and look how that hotted up towards the end. Keeping things tamped down suits the incumbent Alasdair …
McDonnell: “We must face up to the reality that the Agreement has run out of road”
Today’s Belfast Telegraph editorial notes what it believes are the choices facing the new SDLP leader: There are a number of choices facing Dr McDonnell. Does he take on Sinn Fein directly in the Assembly, trying to point up that party’s failings in dealing with the current economic crisis and arguing that Sinn Fein’s cosy relationship with the DUP is just an exercise of political muscle with little end result? Will he take the party into opposition at Stormont? That …
Is the SDLP now ready to take a bet on its own future?
Given some of the product of the SDLP leadership contest (most notable perhaps in Patsy McGlone’s contribution) seems to be about shifting the engagement process (rather than defining new policy), this speech by Micheal Martin to Fianna Fail’s Youth Conference in Cork this afternoon is worth noting, since it tricks out something of that party’s approach to coming back in from the cold: To achieve renewal this must be a party that is totally open to new people, new ideas …
The SDLP leadership candidates, ranked on internet use and internal organisation
The SDLP elects its fifth leader this coming weekend, with four male candidates in the running (the deputy leadership has been filled, without contest, by a woman). Since 1998, when the party topped the first preference tallies for the first Assembly election, the SDLP has lost votes and seats at almost every election cycle (the one exception being a sliver of a gain at the last European election) and now runs consistently 10% behind Sinn Féin, whereas twenty years ago …
Your questions for the SDLP leadership candidates?
As Alan notes, Paddy Power (the people who brought you Martin McGuinness at 3/1 for the Aras) now has Alex Attwood as favourite to win. To be fair that probably reflects a good campaign for Alex, and would considerably turn the table on our crowd sourced predictions from a few weeks ago. Indeed the Irish bookmaker has brought him a hell of a long way from 14/1. In any case, we’d like to put a standard four questions to all …