I was one of the earliest members of the Campaign for Equal Citizenship for Northern Ireland – over 20 years ago. Along with several of the people currently involved in the Conservative Party here, I sat on the CEC Executive alongside fellow Conservatives (like Barbara Finney and Laurence Kennedy) as well as Socialists like Boyd Black.
I was also the first Chairman of the (Model) Lagan Valley Conservative Association before it was officially recognised by Conservative Central Office.
We established the Conservative Party here specifically because it was NOT the UUP or DUP. It represented something different and non-sectarian. It was about transplanting the politics of the tribe with the politics of the United Kingdom. For twenty years the Conservative Party has been organised here. But it has never actively sought a mandate to govern Northern Ireland in all those years.
The end game was never about a merger with an orange-steeped, sectarian Party. It was always about the Conservative Party, Labour Party and Liberal Democrat Parties actively organising here and seeking to govern this place properly. It was also about participative democracy.
It was not about about a UUP re-spray.
Mr Nicholson’s campaign posters are note-worthy as the only ones that don’t bear a Party logo. The UUP agreed to the Now For Change ‘badge’ but couldn’t actually countenance using the Conservative Party branding and logo.
People say to me that the UUP’s conversion is a gradual process. Frankly I don’t care. We have missed a great chance to transform Northern Ireland’s politics and democracy. The project, as far as I was concerned, was about establishing mainstream Conservatism here, with the national Party’s commitment to seeking a mandate.
But, frankly, the CEC’s work is far from complete. It has hardly even begun.
Very well said