British Labour and NI

The Newsletter makes a passionate plea for Blair's Labour Party to organise in Ulster:

"We cannot vote for the Labour Party and we cannot vote against it. Instead, we have to accept the jurisdiction of a party which promotes political inclusiveness in these six counties of the UK yet deliberately excludes the good people of this Province from its affairs. There have been knowing nods and winks in the past from people in high places about righting this obvious injustice but nothing as yet has happened."

However the power of this argument is dampened somewhat by the fate of the Conservative Party, which does organise in Ulster. After an initial flurry of minor success it has faded into electoral obscurity. As such this option provides little realistic opportunity for voters to help decide which major party gets elected in Britain.

However it is scathing about the 'sister party' link with the SDLP as a reason for not having an official presence there:

"The SDLP is a Catholic party. By exclusively endorsing it as its Northern Ireland partner, Old Labour insulted the unionist people of this Province. New Labour, supposedly more enlightened, continues the insult while mutely consenting to the perpetration of sectarian politics."

However this story is not likely to fade quickly as all manner of speculation about the re-alignment of politics has become a feature of post-Agreement politics. See here for an earlier discussion on realignment.