It is currently difficult to imagine a left-wing coalition winning a Dáil majority. Nevertheless, uniting the left through the presidential campaign is planting the idea of an alternative to the Government, with potentially transformative results.
This is a lesson Stormont’s centre parties ought to note. The UUP, SDLP and Alliance should be finding ways to present themselves as the alternative to government led by Sinn Féin and the DUP, however unlikely that outcome might seem on current numbers. Instead, they are increasingly at each other’s throats.
Last weekend’s SDLP conference brought further escalation. In widely reported comments before the conference, leader Claire Hanna accused Alliance of squandering its recent growth, which saw it double its Assembly seats in 2022.
“That A
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