I used to think of heroes as valiant individuals, standing alone against impossible odds. But, too often, they are media myths, their achievements the work of others.
And so with political heroes. They don’t change the country for the better without help. Too often, the real heroes are unsung, toiling away for little recognition and less reward because it is the right
thing to do.
Ten years ago, my political heroes were the grass roots of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). Unexpected from a Liberal Democrat: the UUP is close to the Conservative party, and, in Northern Ireland, were the establishment, but it is how I feel.
During the peace process, the media would portray the UUP as neanderthals, frustrating the heroism of David Trimble. But I know differently, and I think David Trimble would agree. The real heroes were those whose support made his work possible.
Their political careers were cut short, with no Nobel Peace Prize or peerage as consolation. Though many could see election disaster coming, they continued regardless.
But, they did have reward of sorts. The UUP may have lost all their members in the House of Commons, but the streets are free of the carnage of car bombs. They know there are people breathing today who would be dead without them, walking today who would be maimed.
And it’s a wonderful thing if your political opponents, by their actions, confirm that you were right.
Today, in the UK, the stakes are lower. Not life and death, but low or high interest rates, chaos or financial stability.
Today my political heroes are on a smaller scale, but heroes nonetheless.
Nearly a year and a half ago they faced a choice. They could sacrifice their local political careers, or trigger instability at a time of national economic crisis.
I’m not talking of MPs, whose jobs are guaranteed for five years, and what a fascinating five years these will be. Nor am I talking about activists like me who had no political career to lose.
I’m talking about the Lib Dems in Scotland, in the North of England, and elsewhere, swept from their seats by opponents using a crisis their own party created. Lib Dems who have endured months of abuse from a party which, we can now see, knew we were right all along.
Our enemies were convinced we lacked the steel. That we would erupt in civil war, because we couldn’t take the strains of dealing with the worst peace-time deficit in the country’s history. That, after the loss of the AV referendum, we would lose heart. That the oblivion that threatened in the fifties would return, and this party would pass, riven with factions, into the long dark night.
I wasn’t sure the party would pass this test, but I am now. We won’t suffer the fate of the UUP. We’re not through the crisis, but I don’t now think that the voters will punish us for doing the right thing.
It may take a year or two, but we’ll see recovery in our poll ratings and the future will look more hopeful.
So to all those Lib Dems who have lost their wards or seats, those who have endured hypocritical abuse from Labour, and felt sick to your stomach at the ghastly concessions forced on us by life-long foes, I salute you.
You are political heroes all.
And if any reader from outside the party agrees with me, and wants to give tangible evidence of that agreement, why don’t you click to volunteer for the party, donate to or join us?
* George Kendall is the acting chair of the Social Democrat Group. He writes in a personal capacity.
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10 Comments
Lovely article George.
Hi George,
The UUP undoubtedly played an important part in the peace process, but it wouldn’t be unfair to say they were usually behind the curve in that regard and had to largely be dragged along. All 4 main parties in NI have made great strides and taken great political risks for peace. But if I was to rank them in terms of the ‘heroism’ shown, I’m afraid I’d have the UUP at the bottom of the four.
On the other side of the divide the SDLP took the real gambles for about 30yrs, in the full knowledge that they would be eclipsed by Sinn Fein in a peaceful NI. Since the 1990s it is Sinn Fein who have travelled the furthest, and they have done so with great skill to keep the vast majority of their support with them. In the last decade it’s been the DUPs turn to play catch up, and they have taken a lot of risks by entering government with SF. The efforts of the UUP pales in comparison to the risks and ‘heroism’ shown in different ways by these other 3 parties in my view.
I’m sure you also apprecviate the history of NI and the fact that the UUP was at the core of an avowedly sectarian apartheid state that had to be dismantled from outside by the UK government. They were still the main party in NI during the collapse of the Sunningdale Agreement in 1974 – which was extremely similar to the Good Friday agreement of 1995, but ironically preserved much more of the structures and symbols that Unionism would have liked to see untouched. And they continued to do little to genuinely advance peace until the Nationalists/Republicans and the UK government had got the momentum going and they found they had no choice but to go along. I’m sure in many ways the UUP would wish NI was still the way it was back in the early 1960s – with them in power, the Union safe and unquestioned, the IRA effectively non-existent, and the Catholics/nationalists in their place.
The fact that traditional ‘liberal’ UUP voters now stay at home, or in certain areas vote for the Alliance, shows that the party has completely and utterly lost its way. As Sinn Fein showed, it didn’t have to be that way for them in the gambles they took for peace. If they want to be genuinely heroic in the course of NI politics, they should stop trying to be a DUP-light and instead articulate a genuine cross-community vision for supporting the Union. One that isn’t about wrapping yourself in a flag and dismissing the other culture at every turn.
So ALL parties in NI have changed a lot, travelled far, and taken ‘heroic’ political risks for peace. But I’m afraid that in my view the UUP is at the bottom of the pile in that regard.
People like David Trimble put their lives at risk to be politicians. That’s heroism for me. And Sinn Fein were cheerleaders for those doing most of the killing. That puts them permanently at the bottom of the pile for me.
Paul – no offence, but to describe the above as a simplistic understanding of what actually happened in NI over the last 25yrs would be an under-statement.
A large number of Northern Irish politicians put their lives at risk – on all sides. Some still do. And as stated above, all sides and all parties made steps for peace. Some needed to travel further than others, but that shouldn’t be held against them.
Despite what you may think of Sinn Fein – and trust me, I’m no fan of them – there wouldn’t have been peace without the serious work they did. If those involved in the search for peace in NI had taken the simplistic view suggested in your note above (and the DUP did for a long while) we’d never have gotten to where we are now. And Trimble was ultimately a failure, as he lacked the leadership skills to bring his ‘people’ with him (though whether anyone else could’ve at that time is the big question).
Conflict resolution requires all to move on from the past. I expect history will judge the participants more dispassionately and less flippantly in terms of who contributed what.
>>Despite what you may think of Sinn Fein – and trust me, I’m no fan of them – there wouldn’t have been peace without the serious work they did
I rarely disagree with you Steve but today you’ve lined me up on the opposite side for 2 in a row (the other being your comment on the capitalism thread).
It’s hard not to shout out your comment above – I can only give Sinn Fein absolutey minimal credit for having moved to becoming half-way (and only half-way) civilised members of the human race.
“there wouldn’t have been peace without the serious work they did” – yes, but only if you also accept that there wouldn’t have *needed* to have been a peace process in the first place if it hadn’t been for the “murder process” they largely created.
There is a lot I do not like about the politicians of Northern Ireland – there are few liberals to be found amongst them. But I have great admiration for them, that in the end most of them contributed to a peace process which had a fantastic outcome.
We know the DUP are homophobic and socially conservative, and yet to hear of Paisley and Robinson speak out in favour of peace is something to behold. David Trimble showed considerable bravery, even to the extent of sacrificing his party – albeit not what he intended. I always respected the SDLP who offered Catholics an alternative to the men of violence – although sometimes they placated them too much. However they were not the obstacle that Sinn Fein were. But even they had to make the hardest choices of all, and I suspect the leaders of Sinn Fein are most at risk of assassination.
The best party of all is the Alliance party – true liberals even though they do not support the Lib Dems today.
My heros? Pierre Trudeaux of Canada, Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic, Jesse Jackson from the USA, Mary Robinson former president of Ireland, Winston Churchill who was wrong about many things but right about one, Jo Grimond, Liberal leader who sought to realign the left in the 1960s, Richard Wainwright MP who did a brilliant job of leading the Liberal frontbench on economic policy in the 1980s, Michael Meadowcroft (albeit I strongly disagreed with his decision to start up the continuing LIberal party after the merger of the SDP and Liberal party) who wrote some great booklets on Liberalism in the 1980s, EF Schumaker who published his speeches in the wonderful book “Small is Beautiful” – a book every liberal should read in my opinion. I am sure I can think of more.
Thanks for the comments, guys.
For me, the UUP grassroots were the greatest heroes, because they risked the most, and indeed lost the most.
The UUP knew that the DUP would viciously attack them for supposedly betraying the Unionist cause, and use it to try to destroy the UUP as an electoral force. Ultimately, the DUP succeeded in this, but by then, the peace process had progressed to a point where it had developed its own momentum. It was then politically possible for Sinn Fein to make further concessions, which allowed the DUP to accept the settlement. I don’t think this would have been possible without the sacrifices of the UUP.
The DUP deserve credit for finally accepting the Good Friday agreement, but until then, a lot of what they did seriously risked derailing the process. Sinn Fein deserve credit for finally accepting peace, but until then they (and the Loyalist paramilitiaries) were responsible for an awful lot of killing.
There are others who deserve credit. The SDLP played a very important role, but they didn’t have to endure fury of Unionist extremists. Believe me, if you think Labour abuse of the Lib Dems in coalition is bad, you should have gone to Northern Ireland at that time. The Alliance deserves credit, but they didn’t make the same sacrifices as the UUP.
David Trimble deserves, and has received, credit, but I want to highlight the unsung heroes. The grassroots who backed David Trimble up, who I met in 1999 and 2001. And if any of you are reading this and remember me: I didn’t call you political heroes at the time, but I was thinking it. And this article is a public salute to your moral courage.
And it’s also a salute to the moral courage of Lib Dems who supported the coalition in 2010 because it was the right thing to do, even though you knew it might mean the end of your local government career or your career in devolved government.
Dominic – you’re right that there wouldn’t have needed to be a peace process had it not been for the actions of Sinn Fein (or more accurately, their paramilitary wing, the IRA). Though as they say on the BBC, there were also other ‘brands’ of paramilitary available on all sides (e.g. the INLA) who had nothing to do with the Shinners.
But if you’re going to sequentialise the source of the problem, you can’t just start at a point that suits your argument. The IRA and Sinn Fein didn’t magically appear in a vacuum. They were effectively a busted flush / non-existent when the Civil Rights process began in 1968/9 (inspired by the US, French and Czech protests of that decade). That civil rights process was brutally suppressed with force by the protestant police force of what was openly called ‘a protestant parliament for a protestant people’. For example – there is a famous photo of graffiti in my home town from the time which mocked the IRA as standing for ‘I Ran Away’. Once the IRA were spurred by events to reform, they determined to never again be seen as guilty of being absent from their perceived role of ‘protectors’ of ‘their community’. And the British Army shooting dead 14 unarmed civil rights protestors in the street – half under the age of adulthood, and most shot in the back whilst fleeing – in my home town in 1972 was the biggest recruiting seargeant the IRA ever had, probably single-handedly fuelling the Troubles for 5-10yrs longer than it otherwise would have run, and leading directly to dozens if not hundreds of additional deaths. So if we extend your cause-and-effect argument back a bit further, at what stage do you continue the line back from the IRA/Sinn Fein to the British government and the old Protestant-run parliament ? And eventually all the way back through Michael Collins, Home Rule, the Fenians, the Famine, 1798, 1689, the Reformation, etc etc to Earl Strongbow and Diarmuid McMurragh in the 12th Century ?
So you see – in NI the blame game is very easy to play, because ALL sides did wrong and ALL have blood on their hands, and you can keep drilling back in-time in the never-ending search for ultimate responsibility. Or you can just accept that all did wrong, that simplistic accusations of the perceived source of blame are false and pointless, that harking back therefore serves no purpose, and that it’s the future that is really important. And recognising that all sides had a part to play in getting us to a better future – no matter how odious you may otherwise perceive them to be.
P.S. To volley back your point re blame – maybe if the UUP, about whom this article is partly about, didn’t run an oppressive, illiberal and sectarian apartheid state within the UK for 50yrs (one that successive UK governments happily turned a blind eye to) then there wouldn’t have needed to have been a civil rights movement in the first place to be bludgeoned off the streets – thereby creating the circumstances in which the IRA could reappear and flourish amidst the argument that peaceful attempts at reforming the apartheid state in NI were going nowhere. Because the violent opposition of the old Stormont government to political and social reform and equal rights on things as basic as ‘one man one vote’ and fair housing allocation for Catholics was the root cause of the Civil Rights process arising in 1968, which then morphed into the Troubles. And once the Troubles started they opened up centuries old social wounds/issues that gained an uncontrollable momentum of their own, which eventually required a peace process to resolve.
As they often quip back home – the problem with Ireland is that the Irish forget nothing and the English remember nothing ;o)
@Cllr Steve Bradley
My article isn’t about the UUP as a whole, but the individual grassoots members of the UUP, who, ten or so years ago, enabled Trimble to turn a page on the sectarian divide in Northern Ireland.
I don’t know about the Northern Ireland of 50 years ago.
I don’t know about Sunningdale in 1974. Though I heard a little from the Unionist that I met about the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985. The Unionists I met thought the Anglo-Irish Agreemen was a top-down stitch-up between London and Dublin, that rode rough-shod over the Unionist majority. Maybe they’re right about that, maybe not. But they supported the Good Friday Agreement, because they it wasn’t a London-Dublin stich-up.
I know more about 1998 and 2001, and specifically about several ordinary grassroots, one of whom, as well as his political work, was also working help set up a non-sectarian school, which would help in the process of reconconciliation across the divide. There was another, a council candidate, who particularly impressed me. In his election literature, he celebrated the peace process, and how it could lead to reconciliation.
I am, of course, not talking about the minority within the UUP, who from 1998 tried to destroy the peace peace process. Perhaps that’s the source of our disagreement. You’re talking about that minority.
I’m sorry Steve but your “all sides did wrong” moral equivalence just doesn’t wash. SF were by & large the very same people as the IRA (as is now well documented & even admitted). By all means equate them to loyalist terrorists in your moral prism but the likes of David Trimble are a thousand times better human beings than any single member of SF. Only the latter were responsible for deliberate cold-blooded murder and any attempt to argue for some kind of equivalence is totally absurd. There’s a clear difference between politicians and psychopaths; Trimble falls on one side and SF (& indeed loyalist murders) on the other.
Yeah, we’re at a better place now and yes the release of the murderers was the right thing to do under the circumstances in order to achieve the wider goal. But don’t try to pretend that there’s some kind of equivalence between the evil murderers of IRA-SF and those whose politics we simply disagree with.