Peter Cheney talks to the new SDLP leader about her plans for nationalism and aims for the forthcoming Westminster poll.

Taking the economy seriously and bringing more power to Northern Ireland are two major priorities for Margaret Ritchie as she takes up her party’s leadership. While she takes on that job on the eve of another election contest after a long electoral decline, the new SDLP leader believes the party still offers a real alternative to its rivals.

Ritchie has spent 30 years in the party, serving as a Down councillor from 1985 to last year, a Northern Ireland Forum member from 1996 to 1998, and South Down MLA since 2003. Eddie McGrady was her political mentor and she ran his constituency office for several years.

“I think the proudest moment for us,” she recalls from her council career, “was achieving a new hospital with a wide range of services after a campaign that [took] nearly 40 years.”

Her priorities are two-fold: to attract new members, new voters and those who have “gone away” from the party; and a “revitalisation plan” to make the party stronger. This involves focusing on the ‘distinctives’ that set the SDLP apart from its main opponents i.e. in Sinn Féin.

“Many would say they have camped on our ground. Whilst they may have camped on our ground, there are three areas where we are totally distinctive namely the economy, the shared future and Irish unity. And these three pillars are interlinked.”

Republican

Ritchie sees all three as “outstanding items” from the party’s original agenda and thinks that the vast majority of nationalists would support a party which stands for those ideals. Ideologically, she is firmly centre-left and is also keen to claim the term ‘republican’ as well.

“When people say republican in many instances they talk about a violent form of republicanism but republicanism is about uniting people, it’s about reconciling people, it’s about bringing people together.” The SDLP should also be back at the centre of politics, she remarks when asked about her stated ambition to be First Minister.

It was put to her, though, that there is now a wide electoral gap between the two parties and it would be hard to make up the distance. For the record, that gulf in votes was 6,068 at the 2001 Westminster poll, 45,211 two years later and 75,409 in 2007.

In response, Ritchie explained that she finds people being “by and large fed up … sick of division, sick of sectarian politics” and are looking for an alternative vision. The SDLP, she contends, is moving forward and offers that. Many young people, especially, believe in developing a shared society: “They don’t see the boundaries and the divisions between themselves and their friends who possess a different political perspective.”

Voluntary coalition is ruled out, at least for now, as the Good Friday Agreement’s arrangements need to be shown to work over a longer period of time. Any alternative could be considered “maybe at some stage later”.

South Down, with its good community relations, stands out as example which she clearly wants the rest of the province to follow. “It’s about bringing people together, looking at what unites us rather than divides us, and working together on those issues and we are genuine on that,” Ritchie states.

Practically, she wants the SDLP to support greater integration in education and highlight the shared history of both communities, from St Patrick up to serving together in the British army during both world wars.

Unity, in Ritchie’s opinion, involves a “united people” not just “united territory” and nationalists have to spell out what it would mean in detail. One proposal is for the Irish Cabinet to include guaranteed seats for northern ministers.

Formal mergers and alliances with other parties are ruled out in the near future but she has spent a considerable time meeting the leaders of the main southern groupings. A new forum on Irish unity with like-minded parties is also suggested, as is an all-island environmental protection agency.

Extra powers

On the economic point, Northern Ireland lacks financial levers. “It’s like cake,” the nation block grant is described. “We simply divide that up and we don’t have anything else.”

While the Programme for Government prioritises the economy, she wants to see a long-term economic plan. Again, this is two-fold: greater economic integration with the Republic and seeking further devolution from Britain.

“For me, it’s not the end. The devolution of policing and justice marks the end of this phase of politics but I think we now need to move forward into a different phase which is about consensus building, accommodation.”

Four areas are earmarked for extra devolution: fisheries, telecoms, broadcasting and corporation tax. Broadcasting, it was pointed out, would be hard to devolve as the BBC is nation wide but, in response, she says some control could be transferred e.g. to require more local programming.

Her tax views were confirmed by the Northern Ireland Economic Reform Group in February but the Treasury has consistently refused to make that move. “I never accept no as an answer,” Ritchie continues, commenting that she knows the Conservatives are “open to be persuaded” about extra devolution.

“In politics, anything and everything is possible because politics is the art of the possible. It’s not about saying no all the time or putting up barriers or impediments.”

A long-term financial framework agreed with the British and Irish governments is also proposed; this would gradually reduce the block grant and give the Executive an incentive to improve the economy locally.

Westminster

With a general election approaching, her aims are to hold the party’s three seats and also increase its percentage share of the vote. That share was 17.5 per cent in 2005, 15.2 per cent in 2007 and 16.2 per cent in 2009.

“I believe that we have the vision, we have the policies, we have integrity and honesty to bring that forward and a strong quality of representation has been provided over many years to the voters,” she comments.

Abstention is the traditional dividing line between Sinn Féin and the SDLP in Westminster campaigns and, in her view, it’s “very important” for MPs to take their seats. Sinn Féin MPs abstain from Parliament in protest against British rule and the party has pointed out that most nationalist voters (57.8 per cent in 2005) now back that position.

Social security was one practical reason which Ritchie put forward for the SDLP’s approach, drawing from her ministerial work. Assembly laws on this subject are carried over from Parliament, to ensure parity with Britain.

“A party that are absent from Westminster are always carping on about the legislation but it matters that they do not take their seats or influence it.”

To take up an analogy from over the water, she was asked about any similarities between her and another party leader called Margaret. Not in political vision, she remarks, but some comparisons about determination, commitment, enthusiasm and being an “early morning person” were drawn out.

The justice dispute

SDLP members have emphasised that a nationalist is entitled to the Justice Minister post, due to the Good Friday Agreement. Under the current arithmetic, excluding OFMDFM, there are six unionist and four nationalist ministers and running d’Hondt would result in five nationalists.

Ritchie claimed during the interview that Alliance was a unionist party, a statement vehemently rejected by Alliance. That party is also designated as ‘other’ i.e. neither unionist nor nationalist, in the Assembly. She went on say that this was not about “making a job” for the SDLP but instead about democracy and representing its voters.

Allocating a ministry under d’Hondt would, of course, mean re-running the whole process and there is no guarantee that the SDLP would receive that brief. The party accepts that point but says it would at least be entitled to two ministries and the parties could agree who takes which ministry in advance. Both the DUP and Sinn Féin have said they would not take the post initially.

We start with a run through his ministerial portfolio. The junior Minister says that the best way to describe his role is supporting the First and deputy First Ministers: “We shadow, cover, help. We have fairly specific jobs in terms of children and young people and elderly people.”

The two junior Ministers also co-ordinate the Executive meeting which is scheduled to take place every two weeks. They also give a report to the Executive on the issues within their portfolio. The Ministers also have an important role in attending the Business Committee for the Executive and co-ordinating any business between the Assembly and Executive. Kelly sums this up as dealing with “anything which is basically crosscutting”. He also stresses the importance of the ministerial sub-committee on children which both junior Ministers chair.

Going through the functions within his portfolio we start with equality. I ask him how his department ensures true equality, and avoids just ‘ticking the boxes’? He responds: “Well I think the first thing to be said is that Section 75 is a very strong piece of legislation – possibly the envy of other legislative bodies. We’re a designated public body, but in answer to your question you don’t need just a duty, you have to have the will to do it.” He points out that within the Programme for Government (PfG) equality was “mainstreamed”. Kelly continues: “In the PfG we have fairness and inclusion as a mainstay of it and in terms of the public service agreements, likewise. These cover, in some specific terms, gender, equality, poverty, equality, people with disabilities. There is an equality directorate within our unit. It is investing something in the region of £150 million – to do with ethnic minorities and victims and also community relations. So it deals with things as wide as regeneration of areas of multiple deprivation and disadvantage.”

Poverty

We move on to how the Executive is tackling social disadvantage. The Programme for Government aims to eliminate child poverty by 2020, and to achieve 50 per cent of that by 2010. There has been some criticism whether this is a realistic target and he responds to this by saying: “We accept that they are very challenging. We took a position in putting together the PfG that we would not aim low. If you aim low you can make the headlines saying we’ve achieved what we set out to at the start of the year. But what you need to do is aim high, even if you take criticism at the end of that. While it’s challenging I think we have to try and achieve it. That’s what our aim is.”

Another important facet of tackling social disadvantage is the uptake of benefits. Kelly highlights a rolling programme of making sure that people who need benefits know what is available to them: “We go out and encourage that; you need to take a pro-active part in it. We attempt to support parents especially what might be called ‘transition periods’ in children’s lives, to give specific support for that.”

On tackling sectarianism, Kelly says: “The Executive has committed itself publicly to a shared and better future. We are finalising a programme for cohesion, sharing and integration, known as CSI, and that will go out to consultation this autumn.” OFMDFM has funded community relation officers in all of the 26 local council areas. Kelly highlights the work that has been done in his own constituency of North Belfast, where over last summer a number of schemes to prevent conflict were funded by OFMDFM. He goes through in detail the specific actions taken on the ground: “We have the North Belfast Community Action Unit which works with OFMDFM. We have the launch of ‘Say No to Interfaces’, a project dealing with peer pressure in young people and developing leadership which takes workers on interfaces and gives them the skills and capacity building which we hope will go beyond the interfaces into other projects. We had actually set this up before the summer and had a series of meetings with the departments and the PSNI.”

Moving on to more mundane issues, I ask the junior Minister about Europe and how does he think the local administration can engage better with the European institutions? He replies: “I think we got a good kick start just before the institutions went up last May. President Barroso came over and set up the task force and is the only [one] of its kind. What that was about was not so much to throw more money but to give the departments the ability to know where to go, what lines to take and where to look for that type of partnership.”

The two junior Ministers have had a series of meetings with Commissioner Hübner, and are co-ordinating with the task force via the OFMDFM office in Brussels.

We turn to the Investment Strategy and I ask him if he is satisfied with the level of investment delivered to date? He points out that Jeffrey Donaldson and he had attended the Construction Industry Excellence awards the previous day and highlights the Executive’s commitment to investing in infrastructure: “Our commitment as government has been to increase [investment]. There has been decades of underinvestment because we were only a small section of what direct rule Ministers were doing. We’re putting in £20 billion over the next 10 years, £6 billion over the next three years. We were just discussing with the construction industry yesterday because they were talking about liquidity in the market and we were saying we have increased our investment in infrastructure. It’s now up to £1.8 billion, and £2 billion the next year.”

The junior Minister points out that much has been learned in terms of infrastructure procurement: “We have the Strategic Investment Board which is working with departments. We have an investment level twice what it was a few years ago and we have given a commitment that that will increase. All the departments have an investment delivery plan and of course the Central Assets Realisation Team (CART), which is working with the public sector in terms of trying to use assets to the best of our ability.”

I ask if he had to choose one achievement in his term of office, what would it be? He replies: “I suppose the essence of this job, when I think about it, is it is not so individual. Obviously it is a joint office; there are four ministers in it. I think if we – and this is a new and unique government, not just in the history of Ireland but elsewhere – at the end of it to many people’s surprise can say ‘it worked’, that people with very diverse views were able to make a difference, to people in North Belfast or wherever you want to go into, but most importantly to the disadvantaged.

“Then you may not be able to stand up and say ‘my biggest achievement was to climb Everest’, but you might be able to say people in the street believe that we have improved their lives. It might be a quiet achievement but it would be an achievement that I would be satisfied with.”

Journey

Although we have focused on his department’s responsibilities, I ask him how has he found the journey to being a Minister? He replies: “The standard answer I have been giving is that it’s an entirely different discipline. It has been a considerable and, at times, a very interesting journey. I like to think that whatever I do, I put a big amount of time into, I certainly hope that time is used properly. It has been an interesting journey. I am privileged to have been chosen to do this job and as long as I am in it I’ll do the best I can.”

We then get into a discussion on his experience as a prisoner in the Maze/Long Kesh (This interview was conducted before the recent BBC documentary). In explaining his journey from prisoner to Minister, he says: “In one of the ironic twists of history I am working in the department which owns both the Crumlin Road jail and the Kesh. So I’ve gone from tenant to landlord.”

We finish on the topical subject of the devolution of policing and justice. Kelly repeats his party’s stance that this should be devolved sooner than later: “It’s crucial. I was Policing and Justice Spokesperson for a very long time. It is crucial to negotiations. Always highly contentious. I think it’s a significant move for SF and DUP to be saying in the initial stages there will be one Minister, one department but in the initial stages we will not ‘compete’.”

He sees appointment of a local Minister for policing and justice as “a very significant move. That presents its own problems, in terms of who would take up as the Justice Minister, but I would hope that we would be able work that out. One of the words that always remember throughout the last 40 years is ‘intractable’. People always said it was an intractable problem.

“There are no intractable problems in politics. This is a problem which was agreed at St Andrews. It needs to be resolved and needs to be resolved as soon as possible. I think all the evidence is out there, right across the community. People want a proper policing service and they want control of it, in their hands. The mood out there is for it, what we need to do is sort it out very quickly.”