Everything Ulster - Election 2005

THE SDLP launched their manifesto yesterday. I haven't been able to get a hold of the document (their website's been a bit screwed today as far as I can tell) but the BBC published a summary report. Let's see what we've got....

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According to the BBC report, issues discused in the SDLP manifesto are:

• Bringing in a new sectarian and hate crimes act to tackle incitement to hatred on the internet and through the display of flags or graffiti, and football terrace chanting
  Fair enough - though I wonder how easy it will be to control football terrace chanting. As for trying to censor the internet - good luck. I worry a bit about the internet, eg will publishers end up being held responsible for forum posts or blog comments? This is fairly typical election fudge and needs explained more. I'm not sure what's wrong with the current laws.
• Convening a victims and survivors' forum to design a truth remembrance process and ensure assets recovered from criminal and paramilitary gangs are diverted to victims' groups
  Like the idea of diverting funds to victims groups from the ARA - some sort of poetic justice in that. Not sure how constructive any rememberence process would be. First we have to uncover the truth, then decide which version we'll take, and then get over it and move on. Is this likely in Northern Ireland?
• Advancing police personnel exchanges with the Irish Republic's police in areas such as serious crime, drugs, community policing, criminal assets, fingerprinting, ethical standards and training
  Anything that'll help catch more of the scummier elements of our community, if it expands the cross-community appeal of the Police Force, even better.
• Creating a fair rates system based on ability to pay
  Local income tax anyone? Sounds like blandly appealing to as many people as possible by being as unspecific as possible.
• Opposing the privatisation of water services and creation of a government-owned water company, domestic metering and water charges
  What's wrong with domestic metering? Firstly it would encourage people to use less, which unless I'm mistaken is a good thing! Is that a bandwagon I hear? Does anyone seriously think any of the local parties are going to do anything about this?
• Campaigning for the adoption of the euro by the British government
  They've got to be kidding! A party who spends their whole time talking about a 'Better Ireland' and wants out of the UK wants to tell the government they should hand over financial control to the EU, possibly the least democratic and most corrupt political entity in the Western world?
• Ensuring primary healthcare services are well funded with a real partnership between GPs and other health professionals
  I've got a sudden craving for fudge. Could it be due to a another wishy washy, unquantifiable promise that they can't really be challenged on?
• Allocating significant funds to acute hospital services for Tyrone and Mid-Ulster
  Don't know enough about health care in the sticks to comment.
• Securing free nursing care for the elderly
  Not without merit. Would need more info on this to comment.
• Widening access to third level education, targeting low-income families and dedicating extra spending to those with disabilities, students with dependants and mature students
  Great idea. I'd like to know what they're going to do to attract the under represented in higher education in Northern Ireland - the working class protestant.
• Investing in schools and opposing efforts to use new pupil profiles as a means of back door selection
  Ballocks to this. Just have selection by post code instead where people move near the good schools, sending house prices soaring so only the rich end up going there?!
• Replacing A-levels with a broader post-16 curriculum
  Oh, gee, something similar to the Irish model perhaps? What's the idea of the SDLP ever proposing changes that aren't based on what Ireland do? As for A-levels, the French have a baccalaureate which is broader than our system, kind of like a general high school diploma I think. Guess what though... they're investigating changing to an A-level type system. In countries with generic high school educations and final qualifications, students at university have to spend an extra year learning the basics we already get in high school! If it ain't broke...
• Investing in public transport, enabling bus and rail services to meet their passenger charter standards and delivering long-term growth as well as securing capital investment for the Belfast to Londonderry rail-link
  Finally something I agree on. I'm fully in support of public transport but it has to be of good quality, particularly the rail network which is atrocious and also round the commuter belt on the outskirts of the city. Just ask any UUJ students from Lisburn direction about how long it takes to get to university by train.
  And I'm sure the SDLP didn't really say Londonderry.
• Devising an aviation strategy for Northern Ireland and guarantee air access to Heathrow for planes from the province
  Maybe I've missed something but why should our planes get priority access over others? I think the first priority of any aviation strategy should be to rename the City of Derry Airport to something more inclusive.
• Expanding rural transport initiatives, particularly demand responsive services like community taxis and "rural rover" bus services
  Yeah go for it, assuming that there's a demand of course.
• Investing in community sport, encouraging greater physical activity among the population and implementing a strategic development plan for gaelic games and rugby.
  Certainly. Particularly I think they should encourage people, like myself, who are shit at sports and grossly unfit to compete in rejects leagues just for the fun of it. Why does football not get a strategic development game though?
• Producing a new Irish language act offering full recognition of the language
  Are they having a laugh? I've said it before and I'll say it again - more people in Northern Ireland speak Mandarin than Irish! Based on a 1987 survey (discussed at Eurolang)and the 2001 census, the best guestimate I can come up with is that around 2% of the population use Irish on a daily or occasional basis, and I feel that is being very generous. Approximately 4% claim to be able to 'speak, read, write and understand Irish' according to the 2001 census. The fact that the SDLP waste time on such issues disgusts me. The Irish language would be much better served if people stopped trying to pretend it was a means of communication and confined it to cultural and historic contexts, as it is there where the language has real meaning.
  As a curiosity, I discovered single people are more likely to speak Irish - coincidence?

So anyway, what can we take from this? Not a lot really. It's weak and fudgey, I expect like a lot of the manifesto's from local parties. Promises of trying to do things they can't really do or can't be called to account on by virtue that there is no metric of success/failure and of course the obligatory 'green' policies - no, not saving the environment - copying Irish systems in Northern Ireland, and of course, my friend, the Irish language (of which I think I shall post more on after the election).

Oh and posters seemed to spring up at the Westlink in Belfast proclaiming the SDLP's election slogan "A Better Way to a Better Ireland," and the first thing I noticed was their obsession with getting the term Ireland everywhere. It was bad enough when they talked about the North of Ireland, at least then we knew they were talking about something remotely relevant, even if they insisted on denying reality. But this latest pandering to republican mythology that Northern Ireland doesn't exist is just another example of SDLP desperation.

Could all these attempts to appear ultra green be Mark Durkan's downfall? As was pointed out to me today by Pakman @ Slugger O'Toole, "if your survival as party leader depended on courting 9000 unionist voters in your constituency you would have thought it might be wise to leave the fourth green field crap to the Shinners."

I'd like to see the SDLP do well, simply because I want to believe that those who disagree with my views on the potential annexing of Ulster by the Irish Republic don't feel the need to kill me to get their way. That said, their manifesto doesn't enspire me with confidence and I fear that they, with the Ulster Unionists, will fare badly in this election and the question on my mind is how they will reinvent themselves afterwards, as they will doubtless have to do in order to recover.