Leading parties leave many young unionists feeling ‘embarrassed’
DUP and UUP risking own survival with policies that alienate young, liberal voters, writes Jordan Moore
MIDGLEY Park, the reserve and often training pitch of Linfield FC, the largest football club in Northern Ireland, is named after a socialist and unionist, Harry Midgley, who led the Northern Ireland Labour Party from 1933 to 1938. In fact, Midgley’s Left-wing persuasion was so strong that in the run-up to the 1923 general election UUP leader Sir James Craig referred to him as a Bolshevik.
Despite his Leftist tendencies, Midgley was first elected to Stormont in 1935, and in 1941 he won a by-election for the heavily unionist constituency of Belfast Willowfield.
Such a result left then-prime Minister John Miller Andrews severely shaken to the point that he stated: “If there were a general election now, the government would cease to have a majority.”
The reason for outlining the political career of Midgley is to show to many that unionism does not have to be inherently connected to social conservatism and that it can work in harmony with Left-leaning ideologies.
Midgley was not the first — and he certainly was not the last — Left-wing or liberal unionist.
Other examples of Left-wing unionism include the Progressive Unionist Party, which styles itself as the only Left-of-centre unionist party in Northern Ireland.
Famous past-members include UVF commander-turned-peacemaker Gusty Spence, although the success of the party has been limited due to its strong connection to the UVF.
More recently, independent unionist MLAS like Claire Sugden have gone against the grain of unionist consensus on social issues, such as same-sex marriage.
Despite such examples of liberal/left-wing unionism, it is telling that the main unionist parties in Northern Ireland still cling to their conservative values as if it were a matter of life and death.
We are all-too-aware of the DUP’S stance on issues such as same-sex marriage, abortion and corporation tax. Likewise, individual members have shown a strong affinity to US President Donald Trump and his branch of Right-wing populism.
For example, DUP MP Sammy Wilson tweeted his support for Trump in the run-up to the US presidential election by stating: “I would rather have an American Eagle in President Trump than a nationalist parrot in the White House.”
Even the UUP, who have tried to distance themselves from the stoic conservatism of the DUP, still find themselves eating from the same restaurant, even if their dishes are slightly less spicy.
Who can forget the disastrous electoral pact with David Cameron’s Conservatives during the 2010 general election? Or the gay marriage vote in 2015, where Andy Allen was the only UUP MLA to vote in favour of same-sex marriage despite then-leader Mike Nesbitt stating that opponents of such risked being “on the wrong side of history”.
What is worrying for the DUP and the UUP is that current opinion on all sides of the political spectrum, especially among young people, is turning away from conservatism and moving to the Left.
This movement is a serious issue for the long-term survival of these parties. However, it is one they seem to care little about.
Why should they care about the changing political tide? Well, personally, I come from a working-class unionist background and growing up I was instilled with a sense of pride in my Britishness.
To this day, despite attending Queen’s University, I remain a devoted unionist and my love of the Union could not be more substantial. However, neither could my disdain for the policies of the leading unionist parties and this prevents me from voting for either.
When I attended Queen’s I often thought: “Where are all the unionists?” Although it is true that most of the students in the university are of a nationalist persuasion, there is still a significant minority of unionists. However, while there I could count on two hands those who identified as such.
The reason for this is simple: just like myself, many young unionists are embarrassed at their leading parties. As such they hide their political affiliations from their peers through fear of alienation and ridicule.
In fact, the level of association unionism has with conservatism among university students is so strong that, by stating you are a unionist, you might as well be stating your disapproval of abortion and same-sex marriage, or your belief that the Earth is 6,000 years old. This alienation is a significant issue and it threatens the already-fragile fabric of unionism, as more and more young liberal unionists such as myself either do not vote, or vote for the Alliance Party.
In fact, this scenario unfolded in last year’s general election when Stephen Farry of the Alliance Party was elected MP for North Down, a traditional unionist stronghold.
If this continues to happen both the DUP and UUP will continue to see their vote-share fall, as young voters are turned off by their conservative policies, while older voters, who tend to be more conservative, inevitably die.
To conclude: if the two main unionist parties are to remain relevant in the future, they require the votes of younger generations.
These parties will not be able to survive on the issue of the Union alone.
As such, for political influence, they must adopt a more liberal/left-wing approach. And guess what? It has worked many times before.