As the bright evenings lengthen the sound of nesting birds
will be drowned out by the squawk of loudhailers and the crash of
slamming doors as election hopefuls take to the hustings in hopes of
being raised shoulder-high on May 5. As usual, it's going to be a
bruising battle at both Westminster and local level as nationalists
battle to wrest control of City Hall from unionists for the first time
ever and the SDLP tries to hold on to its remaining Westminster seats
in the face of recent Sinn Féin gains.
Whatever way you're going to sway on May 5, whatever candidate
is going to get your X or your number 1, we recommend that you give
your vote to candidates who are four-square behind the Peace Process
and who will fight tooth and nail to convince unionists that the days
of exclusion are over and that the Good Friday Agreement is the only
game in town. That is the pressing priority when we look at what's
happening on the wider stage.
A wide range of issue continue to concern readers of this
newspaper. The recent cuts in education that are set to impact with
calamitous results, particularly on those of our children who have
special needs, need to be opposed with every fibre of our being. Tony
Blair once said that his three main priorities were "education,
education and education." That may well be the case in England where
his party and his government are made to answer for their actions, but
here in Ireland it's clear that Blair's direct rule ministers are able
and willing to do whatever they want even if, as in the case of the
education cuts and the proposed water charges, there is near unanimous
opposition.
The dangerous deterioration in the quality of our health
service is another cause of great concern. There's hardly a person in
this community who does not have a distressing story to tell about
their experiences of the health service – whether as a patient or as a
relative. Jobs and investment (we told you on Monday about Invest NI's
appalling record of assistance offers in West Belfast) are, as ever, a
pressing need, and that's before we even start thinking about
anti-social behaviour, the environment, housing and so on.
Neither of the nationalist parties has its sorrows to seek. The
SDLP has been in steady decline for a number of years, and has now
actually been eclipsed for the first time as the largest nationalist
party. Sinn Féin, meanwhile, have had a rocky few months with the
Northern Bank raid and the killing of Robert McCartney putting them
under unprecedented political pressure, not least from Dublin.
We have no doubt that both parties have the spirit and the
personnel to take the blows and to move forward into a brighter and
more positive future. The continued erosion of the SDLP's mandate is
good for neither the SDLP nor for the nationalist/republican community
as a whole and the party is already showing signs that it is capable of
staging a recovery. The demonisation of Sinn Féin, meanwhile, and the
attempted criminalisation of the republican struggle only threatens to
drag us back to the dark times that we thought were behind us. The
strong showing of Sinn Féin in the recent elections in the South
suggest that people are not as amenable to scare tactics and
felon-setting as they once were.
Healthy and vigorous political competition is essential in
order to keep politicians and parties on their toes. Make sure that you
ask a lot from your candidate – and make sure you receive a lot too.
And before you cast your vote on May 5, think long and hard
about which candidates have stood up for the Peace Process and for our
children's future.
