It is a long time since John Alderdice was centrally involved in Northern Ireland politics. If the former Alliance party leader is remembered for anything these days, it is for his involvement in the negotiations that led to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and subsequently as the assembly’s speaker, a role he held until 2004.
He left Alliance three years ago and today sits in the House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat peer.
Nonetheless, as a veteran of those landmark political developments from more than a quarter of a century ago, Lord Alderdice’s observations on the present state of our politics remain of interest.
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This is particularly the case where he is commenting on Alliance’s attitude to the border poll debate. The party has secured recent electoral gains and, with neither the traditional nationalist nor unionist political blocs able to carry a majority, seems sure to play a decisive role in any unity vote.
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Alliance has consistently brushed off any suggestions that it should take a view on whether Northern Ireland should remain in the United Kingdom or if its destiny lies in a united Ireland. Indeed, that reluctance to become involved in orange and green politics has undoubtedly been a significant positive factor in its growth.
But with the border poll debate now firmly in the mainstream of our political discourse, it is difficult to see how Alliance sustains its constitutional agnosticism.
Lord Alderdice agrees. In an intervention which will likely agitate Naomi Long and the rest of the party’s current leadership, Lord Alderdice says it is “not politically realistic” to sit on the fence.
With the border poll debate now firmly in the mainstream of our political discourse, it is difficult to see how Alliance sustains its constitutional agnosticism
There is an “almost inexorable trajectory towards a united Ireland”, he argues. “You can’t simply say, ‘Oh, I think we’ll let people vote whatever way they like on the constitution’,” he told the authors of The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland - Beyond Unionism and Nationalism.
To do that, says Lord Alderdice, means the party has “no guidance to give and nothing to say about the most major, historic, political, constitutional issue in your country”.
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Research for the book shows that 38.1% of Alliance members support Irish unity and 27.6% wish to remain in the UK, with 30.1% undecided. Those proportions which would seem to indicate a greater preference for unity than the general population, and also challenge the idea that Alliance is ‘unionist lite’.
Alliance was quick to adopt a position on Brexit, that other great constitutional upheaval of recent years. To not at least explore its position on a border poll seems inconsistent. Any serious political party should want to play its part in shaping the future of the place it calls home.
