Justin and Colum: decent people?

Well, who would have thunk it? Imagine a politician elbowing one person in the chest and telling another to “get the fuck out of the way” in the chamber of the legislative building. No, Virginia, I’m not talking about Colum Eastwood. I could never imagine Colum using language like that. Although who, before it happened, could have imagined squeaky-nice Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau using such a word? Or elbowing a woman in the chest?

Actually quite a few people, if they’d been following Canadian politics and the Trudeau dynasty over the decades. Justin a few years back referred to a political opponent as “a piece of shit”, and his father Pierre Trudeau, when Canadian prime minister, was famous for having used rude language in parliament, something he denied, claiming all he said was “Oh, fuddle-duddle!”. And Justin’s mom Margaret, when she split from Pierre and was cavorting with the Rolling Stones, was famous for telling an interviewer that she considered her greatest asset to be her ass. Shocking or what?

But not as shocking as Colum Eastwood’s daring leap over the precipice into Opposition. Was it something he made his mind up about after careful scrutiny of the programme for government? Or did Mike Nesbit tie a metaphorical rope to Colum’s ankle when he jumped a short while back? Tricky, really. Colum and his party couldn’t afford to be seen as tamely staying in the Executive and picking up the crumbs of power from the DUP and Sinn Féin. On the other hand leaping into league with the UUP lays him open to the charge of being the Alliance Party in thin disguise or even reviving the old Stormont, in which nationalists were permanently held at arm’s length from power.

Incidentally, few seem to care about the impact of all this on poor Jim Allister. Bad enough that McCann and Carroll look as if they are going to drive him into the rhetorical shade when it comes to lambasting the Executive. Now he must cope with the fact that never again can he complain about an absence of democracy in Stormont because there’s no Opposition.

However, back to Colum. Is his dramatic lep going to face him with the problem a dog faces when it chases a bus and  catches it: what to do now?

I suppose he might say that going into Opposition frees him up to criticize those in government …No, wait a minute. Colum could and did do that repeatedly when he was still part of the Executive. So what is he going to do differently?

I had an exchange on Twitter recently with someone who clearly is an SDLP supporter. She told me that the difference between Sinn Féin and the SDLP came down to ‘decency’. Remember that word? And which party used it in an election campaign? Yep, it was the UUP. “Decent people vote for the UUP” the slogan went, as I remember. Which must mean there are a lot of indecent unionists running around, because the UUP vote sank yet again.

Probably the best thing for Colum and his party to do now is list the key areas where they are at sharp variance with the Executive ….No, let’s make it easier. List the three main areas in which his party differ from Sinn Féin. Apart from the decency thing (whatever that is).

We might start with hearing if the SDLP differ from Sinn Féin on the question of partition. There was a time in the early days when the SDLP used to pride itself on being focused solely on civil rights. But that time is past. Many if not all of the civil rights campaigned for have been granted. And whether you welcome it or detest it, the British exercise of jurisdiction over this part of Ireland is a pretty fundamental question. So maybe ‘fess up on that one, Colum.

Another area he might want to address would be education. Does his party favour, for example, academic selection? We know that Sinn Féin don’t. As the party whose members have perhaps gained most from the Eleven Plus, it’d be interesting to hear their present stance.

Then there’s health. That department is a massive mess: how would the SDLP clear up that mess? And how would their clearing up differ from that of the Shinners?

Finally, there’s the abortion question. Sinn Féin have said they believe in a woman’s right to choose abortion, should she wish, in cases of rape, fatal foetal abnormality or when there’s a serious risk to the mother’s health. Do the SDLP agree with that or have they another position?

I’m sure there are other issues where the SDLP offer a clearly different alternative to  Sinn Féin but those few will do for now. Colum Eastwood is a squeaky-clean new leader of the SDLP. It’s past time for him, if not to start elbowing and swearing, to tell us what moral and political imperatives have driven him over the edge into Opposition, where he now stands shoulder to shoulder with Mike the mic.