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The ongoing battle for supremacy in the Ulster
Unionist Party continues with there being little chance of
a rapprochement between what can conveniently and in a very
loose fashion be called Trimbleites and Donaldsonites; this
is in a political party where the grassroots has always wielded
very considerable power. Perhaps this time it really is a
fight to the death, the death of one or other part of the
party.
David Trimble's vote at the last Ulster Unionist
Council meeting slipped slightly to 54% but that is still
a percentage in his favour. Now the legal manoeuvring and
the pressure from the Orange Order and others is continuing
the high drama. Fortunately the 'marching season' has kicked
off to a peaceful start without trouble at Drumcree so hopefully
it will not be a long hot sectarian summer to add further
pressure.
Jeffrey Donaldson depicts himself and the 'no'
faction in the party as the principled ones, those who will
not sit down in government with terrorists, those who seek
to renegotiate the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement to get a
result more favourable to Unionists. Given that much Unionist
support for the Good Friday Agreement has evaporated over
issues such as release of prisoners, policing reforms, and
own goals by Sinn Féin like the alleged spying incident
at Stormont, there is bound to be Unionist unease. Yet the
devolved institutions of government are popular with people
of almost all political views so that, with time, the pendulum
would presumably have swung, or still swing, back to greater
support.
We have stated in this space before that a renegotiation
of the Good Friday Agreement is not impossible but would be
so difficult as to be a pyrrhic victory (which is what Donaldson
accused Trimble of after the last Unionist Party vote). The
idea that the SDLP, let alone Sinn Féin, are going
to sign up to anything that would be more advantageous to
Unionists is highly unlikely if not impossible.
The Good Friday Agreement has been painful for
Unionists. But their spleen at this juncture seems more a
case of them expecting their own way again rather than a careful
assessment of the politics of the possible. The 'no' camp
seem to be demanding the impossible. Because if the Good Friday
Agreement was painful for Unionists it was just as, or even
more, painful for republicans; Northern Ireland remains a
kind of British state and Sinn Féin have entered a
partitionist parliament, something which seemed impossible
fifteen years ago. In other words, unionism won, admittedly
a limited victory but a victory nevertheless, and there is
no gain without pain in a situation like Northern Ireland.
But there is one point which is worth challenging
in Northern Ireland as in other societies which are heavily
divided on ethnic, sectarian or other lines. Stronger sectarian
voices on either side can proclaim the purity of their message,
the justness of their cause, the injustice of the current
situation, and so on. That is how sectarian politics has traditionally
operated in Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement
was one of the first times that people and politicians have
said 'enough, we want the politics of cooperation'.
Cooperation, compromise and pragmatism are more
important principles in divided societies than purity of doctrine
or individual self interest. If we are sure of what we are,
what we want ideally, but not in an obsessive way, then we
can sit down and be prepared to compromise, a dirty word in
the Northern Ireland lexicon. We can still work for our principles,
still try to persuade others, but the reality of a multicultural
society is that there has to be such compromises. Cooperation
and compromise at a societal level are a vital principle in
Northern Ireland's sectarian society. That does not seem to
be a lesson which the Donaldsonites have learned. There can
be principle and pragmatism together.
Northern Ireland has often found the process
since the ceasefires of nine years ago to be a difficult one.
Further difficulties remain but much has been dealt with,
even if unsatisfactorily according to some. If battles continue
within the Unionist party then there can be no agreement on
anything substantial. And if the Unionist Party splits there
is the question of how the ongoing power will fall; in the
past the 'liberals' (as with the Faulknerite power-sharing
unionists of 1974) have melted like the snow. This time it
may be different but whatever way the political geography
of unionism may end up, it spells ongoing infighting and trouble
for a considerable time to come. And without a settled situation
for unionism then the whole of Northern Ireland will continue
to suffer from the resultant fallout and instability.
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