Sadly, though, over the last few weeks self-indulgence, egomania and petty factionalism have severely weakened the cause of the genuine pro-Agreement camp in the North. And those who deny that the election on 7 June is a second referendum on the Agreement are living in Pollyanaland.
Lamentably, in only one constituency, North Down, has there been any sense of the vision and self-sacrifice needed to save the Agreement. Alliance certainly deserves the plaudits and indeed the first preferences in local government for their decision to stand down in favour of the Ulster Unionist pro-Agreement candidate Sylvia Hermon. But in neighbouring Strangford and further afield in South Antrim, Alliance candidates risk splitting the pro-Agreement vote and allowing the DUP to claim two famous victories.
The SDLP claims it is defending the Agreement but is still prepared to field candidates in the above three unionist-dominated constituencies, thus again reducing the chances of their main partners in the power-sharing coalition, Trimble's Ulster Unionists, fending off the Paisleyite challengers. To their eternal credit, however, John Hume's party has refused to enter into sectarian pacts with Sinn Fein.
In fact the SDLP may benefit from tactical voting in West Tyrone, where a small but significant slice of the electorate, the Alliance and pro-Agreement UUP voters, may hold in their hands the fate of Brid Rogers becoming an MP. There is anecdotal evidence - I stress the word 'anecdotal' - that some moderate unionist farmers may be prepared to vote for Rodgers given her handling of the foot and mouth crisis and her general personal appeal across sectarian boundaries. Anyway, given the numbers it is probable that Willie Thompson can't win.
Conversely, in South Belfast the SDLP's slim but no longer unrealistic opportunity to unseat anti-Agreement candidate Martin Smyth has been hampered by the entry of both the Alliance and Women's Coalition candidates into the race. Here it is not so much the moderate-minded unionist farmer but rather the Belfast 7 liberal professional who holds the key to victory for the most genuine pro-Agreement candidate, ie Alasdair McDonnell; or perhaps to be more accurate, Belfast 7 liberals are helping Smyth to retain his seat and subsequently his authority to challenge Trimble for the UUP leadership later this month.
Despite the petty squabbling, pro-Agreement voters - the 71 per cent of you out there who voted for the peace deal three years ago - can still save the accord. But it will require voters ditching electoral habits of a lifetime, crossing sectarian divides and even in the case of South Antrim and Strangford, putting their 'X' beside candi dates who are at best lukewarm on the Agreement. The latter prospect is a bitter pill to swallow, particularly given David Burnside's switch from soft 'Yes' to soft 'No' and his long associations with the anti-heroes of the Tory ultra-right such as Lord Tebbit. Yet what is the more damaging prospect for the Agreement? An MP such as Burnside still to an extent under David Trimble's control or an MP like Willie McCrea who shared a platform with the loyalist murderer Billy Wright?
Clearly both Burnside and to a lesser degree David McNarry are somewhat outside the 'genuine' pro-Agreement camp. Being 'genuine' about the Agreement, by the way, means defending all aspects of the accord from inclusiveness to police reform to decommissioning. Being 'genuine' about the Agreement does not mean professing the principles of peace and democracy inside Stormont while at the same time allowing your private army to continue to murder and maim outside it. Those parties linked to paramilitary armies that refuse to end social terrorism cannot in any way be said to be 'genuine' about the Agreement.
A result on Thursday which produces mutual victories for the extreme wings of unionism and nationalism will be a catalyst for the deadly divisions already pulling this society apart. These fissures were on display in Portadown last weekend when teenagers, some of them primary school pupils at the time of the 1994 ceasefires, rioted against a junior Orange parade. Any 'greening of the west' will inevitably be met by the 'hardening of the loyalist east': in effect, the political re-partition of Northern Ireland. And where there is political re-partition actual physical, possibly violent, re-partition will undoubtedly follow.
Tactical voting across this chasm to save the Agreement, on the other hand, would confirm that partnership government is working and the generous spirit of Easter 1998 is still alive.
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