You are about to hear a ‘dad joke’. How many folk musicians does it take to change a lightbulb?
Answer: Five. One to change the bulb, and four to sing about how wonderful the old lightbulb was.
The joke is a metaphor fit for the SDLP, a party which has spent the past two decades singing in the dark while its members rooted around for a new bulb.
Although that might appear dismissive, it’s not meant to be as cruel as it sounds.
In spite of its electoral decline, the SDLP remains true to its values – commitment to justice, reconciliation, and bettering people’s lives.
But somehow it has lost its connection with voters – most of whom would welcome a society built on those principles.
For the SDLP, and to a degree the Ulster Unionists, it is a case of the Moses Syndrome writ large.
John Hume, Seamus Mallon and David Trimble saw the promised land; but the milk and honey was taken by their opponents.
In part the SDLP has been a victim rather than author of its own misfortune. As politics has become more polarised, so too has the electorate.
If the DUP and TUV are doing all they can to trample on our Irishness, surely it makes sense to counterbalance that with a vote for republicans. The scientific principle – that every action has an equal and opposite reaction – forces us to the extremes.
This is not just the case here. Newton’s third law of motion is now the driving force behind the politics of many so-called democracies.
It is being played out big-time in the United States, threatening its prized constitution. It’s at large in British politics, where Reform has been the catalyst for a shift to the right, forcing even Labour to embrace Brexit and adopt socio-economic policies that Thatcher would have been comfortable with.
And, disturbingly, it is making its presence felt too in Germany, Austria, France and Italy, countries now oblivious to the lessons of Nazi rule.
Armchair warriors and bots on social media thrive on polarisation, and many mainstream media titles and the BBC have adopted polarisation as a marketing tool.
Populists have discovered that in today’s social media world, racism, sexism and brazenly lying through your teeth is the route to power and influence.
Billionaires fund the extreme right because populism tricks the poor into making them richer.
We are all being gamed.
I suppose there is a case to be made that the SDLP’s crucial mistake was to allow Sinn Féin to steal its clothes. Some would argue republicans were gifted the entire contents of the SDLP’s wardrobe.
That as it may be, Hume was right to put principle before party; right to do all he could to remove the Armalite from Irish politics; and right to see the division of our land as less important than the division of our people.
The personal and political cost was enormous and, sad to say, Hume’s work remains unfinished.
While the north displays all the signs of a place at peace, the divisions are deep – in some senses deeper than they were during the Troubles.
Inequalities still exist; the stain of sectarianism still infects our institutions and the mindset of decision-makers; injustice is a sore which runs through society; communities are marginalised; levels of economic and educational deprivation are a scandal; and people’s traditions are disrespected wilfully by those who should know better.
So the SDLP has a job to do still.
That was recognised at the party’s conference this weekend which saw the arrival of Claire Hanna as party leader.
Without disrespecting the achievements of Hume’s generation, which includes her parents, she made it clear that the SDLP would not be resting on its Nobel Prize-winning laurels.
Beneath a banner reading ‘Build Something New’, she said: “From today on, we talk about the future. We focus on the things we can control, the things we need to change.”
And, by god, we need change. Opposition is a lonely and frustrating place to be.
But the two big parties here need the SDLP more than they think. Their populist mindset predisposes them to duck difficult decisions – we have already seen that in their unambitious Programme for Government.
Opposition is a gift for Hanna and her team. It gives them the opportunity to call the Executive to account, to set out their own pitch to the electorate, and to rebuild the party from the ground up, ensuring it is fit for purpose.
If anywhere needs a lightbulb moment, it is here. It is Hanna’s job now to switch the damned thing on.
The two big parties here need the SDLP more than they think. Their populist mindset predisposes them to duck difficult decisions. Opposition gives Hanna and her team the opportunity to call the Executive to account