Uladh Organiser
Ógra Shinn Féin
This week’s announcement by Mark Durkan to step down as leader of the SDLP has exposed serious fault lines in a party that has become increasingly rudderless and out of touch with the nationalist electorate of the six counties.
Mr Durkan is now SDLP party leader in name only, a lame duck politician who has committed a serious strategic error as we fast approach the Westminster election.
Local MLA Margaret Ritchie is apparently in the frame as one of the front runners for the position, which suggests a lack of confidence in her ability to succeed Eddie McGrady as south Down’s next MP. This is because Mark Durkan tells us that one of the reasons he is leaving his post as party leader is because he is unable to fulfil a dual role as Assembly Member and MP. Of course his assertion was contradicted by his party colleague, Allister McDonald, the south Belfast MP who believes the opposite and that he indeed can carryout both roles. Somewhat tellingly, Ms Ritchie kept her views on this matter to herself.
During the Stormont press conference to clarify his original announcement, which Mr Durkan had made a day earlier to BBC journalist Mark Davenport, he was flanked by senior SDLP personnel in a show of solidarity that fooled no one. Clearly the knives have been out for Mark Durkan for some time and he cast an isolated and lonely figure.
During the Stormont press conference to clarify his original announcement, which Mr Durkan had made a day earlier to BBC journalist Mark Davenport, he was flanked by senior SDLP personnel in a show of solidarity that fooled no one. Clearly the knives have been out for Mark Durkan for some time and he cast an isolated and lonely figure.
The outworking of this unseemly power struggle illustrates the lack of unity of purpose that characterises the SDLP and this is reflected in their approach to working within the Assembly. For example, last Tuesday they rejected a bill that is designed to pave the way for the transfer of Policing and Justice Powers to locally elected representatives. In doing so, they have chosen to put petty political differences before what is needed to ensure an accountable policing and judiciary and they have therefore failed, yet again, to provide any type of leadership on what is a key issue that must be resolved.
2 comments:
Going by the poster are you implying Durkan is a rat ;)
Its the end of the sdlp
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