If That, Then This

I hardly know where to begin on the subject of Fianna Fail's madcap scheme to stand candidates in Northern Ireland. That this is supposed to help out the SDLP strikes me as beyond bizarre, since the two parties have absolutely nothing in common beyond an Irish Nationalism to which the SDLP is less than fully committed, certainly in any form recognisable by the activist base and core electorate of Fianna Fail. Nothing will save the SDLP, just as nothing will save the Alliance Party, and just as nothing short of a miracle will save the Ulster Unionist Party.

Still, if Fianna Fail, no doubt followed by Fine Gael, were to fill the vacuum where the SDLP used to be, then the urgently necessary new British parties should fill the vacuum where the UUP and the Alliance Party used to be. Indeed, they should and must do this anyway. Just as they should and must fill the vacuums where Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems used to be.