The new leader sought to dispel any notion of him as a unionist throwback
ON SATURDAY, Tom Elliott, as the new and 14th leader of the party, told Ulster Unionist Party delegates that there were then 152 days to the Assembly and council elections in May next year – 152 days to fight to remain a significant participant in Northern Ireland politics.
Ulster Unionists are made of stern planter stock. They ploughed and slid through freezing snow and fog to attend their annual conference in the Ramada Hotel beside the Lagan in south Belfast on Saturday, unlike the Éirígí radical socialist nationalist group, which postponed its conference in west Belfast on Saturday because of the severe conditions.
They need to be tough because these are still hard times for them. There were the defections of Lady Hermon and Alan McFarland. The party failed to win a seat at Westminster. Lately, three of its candidates in the general election who polled well jumped ship: former Irish rugby international Trevor Ringland, Freddy Mercury impersonator Harry Hamilton and Paula Bradshaw, who stood in South Belfast.
All were on the liberal wing of the party. All had good chances of taking seats in next May’s Assembly elections, but all appeared at odds with the traditional-minded new leader Elliott, a Fermanagh farmer, senior Orange Order member and former member of the Ulster Defence Regiment and Royal Irish Regiment. An unashamed old stock Ulster Unionist.
Still, other like-minded unionists such as Basil McCrea, whom Elliott defeated for the leadership, John McCallister from south Down, whom he promoted to deputy leader, and former UTV news anchorman Mike Nesbitt, who is contesting Strangford in the Assembly elections, are keeping faith.
So, Elliott can reasonably argue that the UUP remains a broad church. But there is still anger at the defections.
Saturday was a far cry from the excitement of the last two annual conferences, which were graced with the presences of William Hague last year and David Cameron in 2008 – but that was when we had the UUP-Tory link-up which promised much but in the end delivered nothing.
It was a safe speech by Elliott, not particularly inspiring, but steady, in which the new leader sought to dispel any notion of him as a unionist throwback. He attempted to create the impression of a modern unionist leader, despite suggestions of an innate illiberalism.
“Let no one try and say that Tom Elliott is some sort of political dinosaur, for I am not,” he asserted.
He has taken flak for real or perceived negative views on the GAA and gays but insisted he has “never believed in an insular, closed-door unionism”.
He also acknowledged that nationalists’ passion for a united Ireland was every bit as valid as his for the United Kingdom.
What was crucial was that, whatever the differences in aspiration, politicians’ “collective duty must be to ensure that Northern Ireland is governed as well as it can be governed”.
He accused the DUP and Sinn Féin of engaging in “carve-up and veto” politics and called for proper powersharing among all the parties in the Executive.
Come next May in the Assembly elections, Elliott faces the challenge of the DUP. It will be a daunting test. There was nothing at this conference that will frighten Peter Robinson or his election strategists.
The future of the UUP as a continuing force hinges on the party holding the 18 seats it won four years ago, and of remaining ahead of the SDLP so that it is in line to take two ministries rather than one.
In preparation for that battle, Elliott presented himself as a solid, conservative unionist leader who has no intention of trying to “reinvent and reposition” the party.
