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Showing posts with label Alliance Party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alliance Party. Show all posts
Dr John Coulter ✍ My initial reaction when the political jungle drums were sending out a message that former UUP boss Doug Beattie of Upper Bann was considering his position within the party, was simple yet blunt - oh no, here we go again!

And by ‘here we go’, I mean the devastating rift that hit the party like a political tsunami over the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 when the UUP was virtually evenly split between the Yes and No camps.

The rival lobbies formed themselves into pressure groups. The No camp had Union First while the Yes camp opted for Re:Union. The end result was that the UUP lost its position as the leading party in Unionism to the DUP in the Assembly in 2003, followed by Westminster in 2005.

In the Assembly, the UUP is now at its lowest ebb in terms of numbers. With Doug Beattie resigning, the Stormont MLA group is now eight compared to the 1998 elections when it had 25 plus Assembly members. At Westminster, where once the party was in double digits in terms of MPs, it now has one - Robin Swann in South Antrim.

There has been much speculation that under current leader and North Antrim MLA Jon Burrows, the UUP is being nudged ideologically to the Right on the political spectrum to form an unofficial coalition of the Right with the DUP and TUV so that pro-Union parties get the message to transfer votes to each other in next May’s crucial Stormont and local government elections.

But Unionism’s real challenge is to persuade the tens of thousands of pro-Union supporters to actually come out and vote on polling day. Instead of chasing this mythical centre ground, Unionism should be concentrating on building its credibility amongst the so-called ‘stay at home’ electorate, especially in loyalist working class localities.

For several years, the UUP has been living in an ideological cloud cuckoo land that it has to win votes back from the supposedly middle of the road Alliance Party.

Whilst many Unionists may have voted for Alliance as a protest against the disunity in Unionism, the political mask has slipped in Alliance and the party is now firmly a part of the Pan Nationalist Front with the SDLP and Sinn Fein. This is the real message which the UUP has got to get across - that Alliance is now an Irish unity republican party.

There has also been much talk about a so-called realignment within Unionism, with the liberal wing of the UUP and the pro-Union faction within Alliance forming a new-look Liberal Unionist Party, whilst the Right-wing of the UUP joins up with the DUP and TUV to form some new kind of Loyalist and Unionist Party.

But one fact is certain, setting aside the debate on ideological realignment, the current Beattie/Burrows unofficial civil war has the potential to do untold damage to the UUP come May 2027. The battle lines are strangely similar to 1998.

The Yes camp wanted the Good Friday Agreement to work and were seen as the new liberals in the party under the late Lord David Trimble; those who were sceptical as to whether the Good Friday Agreement could succeed wanted to rekindle the opposition which had brought down the Sunningdale power-sharing Executive in 1974.

Under Burrows, the opinion polls have steadily become more favourable for the UUP. Burrows brought a media dynamic to the party. His positive media profile and use of social media gave the firm impression of a party which knew where its ideological direction was going.

This would be no repeat of that explosive post Brexit European election when the UUP lost its MEP seat to Alliance, a European seat the UUP had held since 1979. But the UUP was a divided party over Brexit, sending out mixed messages - is it a Leave party or a Remain party?

The Alliance bounce was clear because Alliance was categorically in the Remain camp, while the DUP and TUV were equally firmly in the Leave camp. Voters were totally confused on what the UUP stood for.

Unionism has to educate its power base that Alliance is no longer the ‘soft U’ Unionist party that it was under Lord John Alderdice; Alliance has become Sinn Fein ‘lite’. That’s the key message the UUP has got to repeatedly hammer home to pro-Union voters.

And there must be a clear statement that the lunatic fringe strategy of ‘Vote Mike, Get Colum’ is firmly dumped in the dustbin of history.

If there’s going to be a purge in the UUP as a result of the Beattie/Burrow ‘political handbags at dawn’ spat, then it must be of those policies which want the UUP to resemble the now defunct liberal unionist movements of the Unionist Party of Northern Ireland (UPNI), once fronted by former Northern Ireland Prime Minister Brian Faulkner, or the NI21 party once fronted by former UUP MLAs John McCallister and Basil McCrea.

The propaganda war must be stepped up. Alliance must be seen, not as a traditional middle of the road, progressive and pluralist party of the moderate centre, but as a clear nationalist party which has adopted the political ground once held by the defunct Irish Independence Party fronted by former British Army officer and Protestant John Turnley

The UUP has got to put out the message - the so-called liberal unionist experience to copy the Alliance party has floundered and the UUP needs to return to its natural and traditional Right-wing position on the political spectrum.

Conventionally pro-Union voters in Alliance will see how the party is drifting steadily towards republicanism, and the currently under-fire leadership of the UUP must work to purge the party of this daft centre ground nonsense.

This unofficial UUP was working if the opinion polls are taken into consideration. But if the Beattie/Burrows bust-up continues to fester, the party should remember the old maxim - no one votes for a divided party.
 
Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. 

The ‘Double B’ Rift Has Echoes Of Yes/No Debate That Split UUP

Dr John Coulter ✍ The annual Alliance Party conference had a lot of pomp and pageantry about what it will do for the people of Northern Ireland come the May 2027 council and Assembly polls, but one question is still eluding the electorate - when will the party come clean on its new-found republican roots?

Of course, spokespeople will be wheeled out to champion the soundbite that Alliance is currently neutral on the constitution and the Union, and prides itself in the propaganda that it is supposedly a ‘middle of the road, centrist’ party.

Long gone are the days when if you wanted to avoid a political debate, you simply said: “I’m Alliance!” Long gone, too, is the perception - especially under the leadership of my schoolboy chum and fellow Presbyterian minister’s son Lord John Alderdice - that Alliance was a ‘soft U’ Unionist party.

In those days, Alliance’s power base was in traditionally Unionist constituencies east of the River Bann. But in the years under current boss Naomi Long, Alliance realised that if it was to become a significant third force in Northern Ireland politics behind Unionism and Nationalism, it would have to expand west of the Bann.

But therein lies the problem for Alliance. How do you ride two political horses at once who are pulling in opposite directions? How do you get moderate Unionists to vote for you thinking you are a ‘soft U’ Unionist movement, whilst at the same time convincing SDLP and Sinn Fein voters to transfer to you under the guise that you are a ‘soft R’ republican party?

It prompts the question - will the real Alliance Party please stand up? Indeed, when will moderate Unionists waken up to the reality that Alliance has hitched its caravan to the pan nationalist front of Dublin, Sinn Fein and the SDLP?

Alliance sent a clear message about its new-found republican and Left-wing roots to the pro-Union community by having Andy Burnham, the controversial Left-wing Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester as a keynote speaker at its recent conference.

The message is simple as to where Alliance - coming into the 2027 elections - now stands. Forget the ‘middle of the road’ spin. Constitutionally, Alliance has now taken over the ground once occupied by the now defunct democratic nationalist movement, the Irish Independence Party. Ideologically, it is occupying the ground once held by the now defunct Northern Ireland Labour Party. Alliance is no longer a liberal party.

Another horse Alliance seeks to ride out of its political stable is that it has become an openly environmentally friendly party in a bid to soak up the Green Party vote in Northern Ireland.

Alliance may be looking over its shoulder at the seeming resurgence of the Ulster Unionists under Jon Burrows, a trend which could see moderate Unionists who used Alliance in the past as a protest vote returning to the UUP fold.

Over the other shoulder, Alliance may be keeping an eye if the trend in mainland Britain where the Greens are having an electoral boost could make its way across the Irish Sea in time for the May 2027 showdown. Put bluntly, could Alliance be squashed electorally between a Green Party bounce and new-found UUP bounce?

Alliance also has the problem of being unable to retain its Westminster seats. It currently has only one MP - Sorcha Eastwood in the traditionally Unionist seat of Lagan Valley.

Having lived in that constituency for 28 years myself, she only won the seat because of a fairly even three-way split in Unionism and tactical voting by republicans. If Unionism can reach an accommodation on an agreed candidate, Alliance in Lagan Valley will suffer the same electoral fate as it has suffered in the past in East Belfast and North Down - losing the seat to a Unionist.

With much talk about realignment in Unionism currently taking place, Alliance must be asking itself - is there room in the pan nationalist front for a third nationalist party?

With Unionism holding discussions on transferring to one another in the May 2027 polls, can Alliance reach an accommodation with the SDLP and Sinn Fein on transfers, or has the Alliance bubble finally started to leak air at a rapid rate?

Has courting the nationalist vote west of the Bann backfired on Alliance? Is Alliance now seen as too nationalist to attract moderate pro-Union voters? And if Alliance tries to rebrand itself yet again as a ‘soft U’ Unionist party, is that the end of republican transfers from the pan nationalist front?

Whilst there has been much talk of a so-called border poll, one is not likely before May 2027. But at some point over the next several months, Alliance will have to finally come clean on where it stands on the Union.

The danger for Alliance is that this debate between the rival factions in the party - namely, the pan nationalist front element who favour Irish unity, and the traditional Lord Alderdice-style ‘soft U’ Unionists - could pull the party asunder in the same way as the Good Friday Agreement created the rival Yes and No camps in the UUP during the Lord Trimble era.
 
Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. 

Alliance Must Come Clean On Its Republican Roots

Dr John Coulter ✍ We can always think of the most bitter medicine we’ve ever had to swallow in life, but politically those who see themselves as moderate Unionists must face the equally bitter reality that the Alliance Party of 2025 is no longer a ‘soft U’ Unionist party, but an integral part of the Pan Nationalist Front.

Long gone are the days when Alliance was led by moderates, such as Lord John Alderdice, a fellow mainstream Presbyterian minister’s son and Boys’ Brigade enthusiast like myself. John and I were at Ballymena Academy together and were members of the school’s cross country and athletics clubs.

During the era of his leadership of Alliance, it was a party which Unionists could transfer to in PR elections. In past European, Assembly, Westminster and council elections in Northern Ireland, the so-called ‘Alliance Bounce’ has seen the party make gains its founders in the Seventies could only dream about.

The perception among the pro-Union community is that Alliance made those gains by attracting votes from moderate Unionism. Perhaps those moderate Unionists saw voting Alliance as a form of protest against the ‘Big Three’ Unionist parties - the DUP, UUP and TUV - rather than remaining at home and not voting.

But a new brand of Alliance Party has emerged in recent months which completely shatters that 20th century perception that Alliance is a ‘soft U’ Unionist party.

Taking the Alderdice era as a benchmark, Alliance was generally stronger in the pro-Union communities and constituencies. West of the River Bann was not viewed as fertile electoral territory for this so-called middle ground, centre party.

However, to advance into that territory west of the Bann, whilst hopefully holding onto any gains east of the Bann, Alliance has had to rebrand itself as a ‘soft R’ republican party capable of attracting transfers and even first preferences from traditional SDLP and Sinn Fein voters.

Basically, Alliance has rebranded itself on the ground once occupied by the now defunct ‘soft R’ republican Irish Independence Party, once fronted by former British Army officer and Protestant John Turnley. He was a Larne IIP councillor when he was shot dead by the UDA in Carnlough in June 1980.

Even before a border poll would ever be called, Alliance is currently under pressure to declare how it would encourage folk to vote on the issue of Irish Unity.

When it comes to talk of a border poll, parties like Alliance cannot afford - or will not be allowed - to adopt a ‘sit on the fence’ attitude. Look what happened to the UUP over the Brexit referendum in 2016.

However, if the Assembly and local government results in Northern Ireland are taken as a snap shot, Alliance is inextricably linked to the Pan Nationalist Front of Dublin, the SDLP and Sinn Fein in wanting a united Ireland.

Recent opinion polls have shown a slow but steady decline in support for Alliance. Could it be that moderate Unionists are finally waking up to the political reality that Alliance has attached its coat strings to the Pan Nationalist Front and republicans and nationalist parties merely see Alliance as a few extra votes to get motions passed at Stormont or councils.

Yes, the opinion polls prove the Alliance Bubble is leaking, but if it is to be finally burst by the time of the next Assembly poll in 2027, the pro-Union parties need to expose Alliance as being that integral partner in the Pan Nationalist Front.

Just as some Unionists vote tactically for the SDLP after they have voted for all the pro-Union parties, all Unionists - and especially moderate Unionists, centre ground Unionists, middle of the road Unionists, or whatever term this section of the pro-Union community wants to call itself - need to stop giving first and second preferences to Alliance, and only see a vote for Alliance as the least worst option to having someone elected from the SDLP or Sinn Fein.

Strategically, the 2027 Stormont election campaign has already begun. The pro-Union community needs to educate the Unionist electorate not just to engage with the electoral process and actually come out to vote, but also to inform that Unionist electorate exactly what Alliance has now become.

One of the challenges in achieving this is that many in the pensioner lobby of the pro-Union community still see Alliance as being a 21st century John Alderdice-type party. The flip side of the coin is that younger and first time voters may see Alliance as a protest party.

In reality, both these voter bases need to recognise that the so-called ‘centre ground’ political mask of Alliance has slipped badly and the party is firmly in the clutches of the Pan Nationalist Front.

When the utterances of numerous Alliance elected representatives are taken into consideration, many of those politicians could feel equally at ease ideologically in the SDLP, maybe some in Sinn Fein.

Likewise, just as President Connolly got elected by creating a Broad Left alliance, will we also see in the coming months Alliance drifting away from the so-called middle road ideologically and become a clear Left-wing movement rather than a liberal party?

If moderate Unionism needs a political wake-up call about what Alliance really now is as a movement, it needs only to watch again the debate in the Stormont Assembly concerning the No Confidence motion in the DUP Education Minister, which was led by Left-wing West Belfast MLA Gerry Carroll from the Far Left party People Before Profit.
 
Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. 

Moderate Unionists Need To Learn Alliance Now Major Player In Pan Nationalist Front

Dr John Coulter ✍ The pro-Union community in Northern Ireland needs to waken up and smell the political coffee by realising the Alliance Party is no longer a ‘soft U’ Unionist movement, but is an integral part of the pan nationalist front.

Unionists need to realise that Alliance is not the party of the late Sir Oliver Napier, one of the party’s first leaders, or John Alderdice, now Lord Alderdice, when Alliance was viewed as a moderate pro-Union party.

The so-called ‘Alliance Bubble’ has seen the party evolve into a 21st century version of the now defunct Irish Independence Party (IIP) from the Seventies.

The IIP was a moderate democratic nationalist party formed mainly by ex-SDLP activists who felt the latter party was too socialist than nationalist under the leadership of the late Gerry Fitt, later Lord Fitt.

When you listen to some of the utterances and stances coming from Alliance, it is very clear the nationalist wing of the party now runs the movement.

What it has managed to do is convince moderate Unionists that Alliance is worthy of their vote as a protest against Brexit or the policies of the Ulster Unionists, DUP, TUV and PUP.

But how many Unionists in plumping for Alliance realise what they were really voting for? Listening to the political statements from a number of the current crop of elected representatives in Alliance, I am left wondering if they are in the right party - some, perhaps, would be better off in either the SDLP or Sinn Fein!

Alliance has been clever in its targeting strategy by focusing on the peace process generation - voters coming onto the electoral register, especially young first time voters - for whom the IIP is merely a few initials in history books.

Ironically, one of the key front people for the IIP was a Protestant former British Army officer - John Turnley. He was a former activist with the SDLP who was in the faction which thought the party was not nationalist enough in ethos and too much of a socialist labour movement.

Fitt, in forming the SDLP, had wanted the party to fill the void left by the old Northern Ireland Labour Party. In nationalist terms, he saw the SDLP as replacing the now defunct Irish Nationalist Party, which had been the main opposition party in the original Stormont Parliament before it was prorogued in 1972.

In spite of Fitt’s strong opposition to militant republicanism, after Fitt left the SDLP, it was the decision by the SDLP in 1983 to contest Fitt’s West Belfast Westminster seat which split the vote and allowed Gerry Adams - then president of Sinn Fein - to grab the Commons seat.

In 2025, with Sinn Fein eclipsing the SDLP at council, Assembly and Westminster levels in Northern Ireland, maybe Alliance sees an opportunity to ‘go green’ and rebrand itself as a moderate nationalist party rather than the traditional perception of Alliance being a ‘soft U’ unionist party.

With Alliance looking like a mirror image of the old IIP, obviously the ‘green wing’ of Alliance will not want to suffer the same fate as the IIP.

While not winning any Commons seats in the 1979 Westminster General Election which saw Maggie Thatcher’s Tories sweep to power in Britain, the IIP’s showing in a number of constituencies gave it a fairly credible foundation to challenge the SDLP as the main voice of moderate democratic nationalism.

However, disaster struck in June 1980 when Turnley - then an IIP Larne borough councillor - was shot dead by the UDA in the coastal village of Carnlough. By the time of his death, Turnley had been the political face of the IIP and the party was making slow but steady inroads into the SDLP vote.

But it was the republican hunger strikes of 1980 and especially 1981 which saw Sinn Fein emerge as the alternative to the SDLP. The IIP found itself electorally squeezed between the SDLP and Sinn Fein for the nationalist vote. The outcome was inevitable - by the end of the decade, the IIP was defunct.

With Sinn Fein and the Irish government pushing the debate on Irish Unity, Alliance will not want to miss out on any electoral opportunities, especially west of the River Bann in Northern Ireland where Alliance has yet to secure a major electoral foothold.

It is electorally clear that east of the Bann, Alliance has attracted voters by branding itself as the party of protest against mixed messages from Unionism.

But eventually, the political penny will drop with moderate Unionists that Alliance has really now evolved into a soft republican party - the old IIP under a new banner.

West of the Bann is where the rich electoral pickings for Alliance lie. But to do so, it cannot be seen as a ‘small U’ Unionist party as in the days of Napier and Alderdice. Alliance must play the ‘green card’ and take its full place in the pan nationalist front to attract votes from traditional Sinn Fein and SDLP voters.

Ironically, with Sinn Fein winning council seats east of the Bann in areas that were traditionally seen as Unionist strongholds, Alliance may also be tempted to push the ‘green agenda’ in those constituencies.

Current leader Naomi Long has been clear in wanting to see Alliance as ‘Other’ in terms of designation and reform at the Assembly. But could the political pussy-footing with nationalism backfire on her leadership and a DUP-style coup brew to replace her team with a more openly nationalist agenda?

Turnley and the IIP are both gone, but their legacies could live on in the new-look ‘Green Alliance’ which is steadily emerging.

 
Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. 

Has Alliance Become The New IIP?

It's Still Only Thursday ✒ The Alliance Party has a problem. In order to appeal to Irish nationalists and the Far-Left they must present themselves as being opposed to, in fact openly hostile to, Loyalism and Unionism.

This is not just problematic because a large percentage of their voter base are liberal Unionists.

It is problematic too because it sets Alliance apart from the rest of the political spectrum in Northern Ireland. Provisional Sinn Fein, the SDLP and PBP don’t deliberately go out of their way to insult or demonise the PUL community, at least not in public.

Almost everybody in the British Isles already knows that Irish nationalists and republicans are hostile to Loyalism/Unionism, they (Sinn Fein, SDLP, PBP etc) don’t have to prove it, nor do they need to go out of their way to be offensive, crass and over-the-top in their condemnation of Unionism.

Of course, they say and do things (especially SF) which Loyalists find insulting, offensive, hypocritical and tactless but it is, at least partly, because of their core political beliefs, not because they wish to appear hostile to Loyalists and Unionists.

Continue reading @ It's Still Only Thursday.

Demand Bitter ➖ The Alliance Party & Their Social Media Toxicity

The recent departure of veteran Alliance politician Trevor Lunn from Lisburn has effectively fired the starting gun for the so-called Hard Left faction of Alliance activists and supporters, dubbed the Red Alliance, to stage a coup in the supposed middle of the road party. Political commentator, Dr John Coulter, probes the coup.

A Radical New Left has emerged across the island of Ireland in the form of a protest movement against establishment parties.

In Northern Ireland, that protest takes the form of the Alliance Party, which for years was seen as a ‘wine and cheese supper brigade’ for people who wanted to opt out of serious political debate.

Brexit changed all that image. Against the overall UK result, Northern Ireland voted Remain while the total UK poll was for Leave.

Likewise, when the RHI scandal blew up, resulting in the collapse of the DUP-Sinn Fein led power-sharing Executive at Stormont, three years of political stalemate ensued.

Alliance branded itself as a twin-track movement - if you are unionist and you are a Remainer, then vote Alliance and stop Brexit! If you are fed up with the establishment DUP-Sinn Fein political foot-dragging over Stormont, then vote Alliance and get things moving again!

The result of this clever spin doctoring was to give Alliance three successive election ‘bounces’ - increased representation on Northern Ireland’s councils; snatching the once rock-solid safe Ulster Unionist European seat, and then pulling the carpet from under the feet of the DUP and taking North Down in the Westminster General Election.

In the South, ironically, the party of protest against the establishment Fine Gael and Fianna Fail partnership was Sinn Fein. The ‘Shinners’ are still hopeful they can form a Broad Left coalition government in the Dail.

But what of Alliance north of the border? What should its tactics and strategy be now? Unionists and loyalists like to make jokes, jibes and allegations about Alliance, that following the Belfast City Hall flag dispute the centrist party is an integral part of the so-called ‘Pan Nationalist Front’.

But trying to compare Alliance and Sinn Fein policies has not been a vote winner with the Unionist parties, especially among soft pro-Union Remainers.

But instead of Alliance joining the ranks of the so-called ‘Pan Nationalist Front' in terms of Irish unity, Alliance should clearly show its Left-wing credentials and become an integral member of Sinn Fein’s Broad Left partnership.

Just as the Hard Left Momentum organisation - like its fore runner in Militant Tendency - came to have a major influence in the British Labour Party, then the similar Red Alliance pressure group needs to make its presence felt within Alliance generally.

Trevor Lunn is a well-respected and hard-working politician, but he represents ‘Old Alliance’. His generation of Alliance politician maintained the political foundation of the party during an era when being ‘moderate’ or ‘middle of the road’ was not popular.

But Alliance has recognised that a generation of new, Hard Left-leaning young voter base has emerged for whom the loyalist and republican ceasefires of 1994 and even the 1998 Good Friday Agreement are merely dates in history books.

If Alliance is to shake off its ‘we are just merely a protest party’ image, then Hard Left politics are the answer - especially in the face of a Boris Johnston-led Westminster Government, which has a huge Thatcherite-style working Commons majority.

In building a new socialist alternative to the BoJo establishment which is a truly non-sectarian movement, then the grassroots pressure group of Red Alliance must be the way forward.

The SDLP is overtly nationalist; Sinn Fein - whilst having a clear Marxist economic agenda - has its political strings too tightly pulled by the Provisional IRA’s army council, no matter how much the Sinn Fein spin doctors scream about the IRA being ‘off the stage’.

So what remains of the Left in Northern Ireland? The Workers’ Party has all but disappeared and is historically too much aligned to the Official IRA. The Irish Republican Socialist Party is also closely linked to the terrorist INLA.

The Communist Party of Ireland has also all but vanished, and the main revolutionary voice of the Left - People Before Profit (PBP) boasts an unworkable Trotskyite agenda.

Critics of Southern Sinn Fein in the Dail maintain Mary Lou McDonald will not be able to chalk up the numbers, even with support from the Greens, Social Democrats and the Solidarity People Before Profit to break through the 80 TD mark needed to have even a water-thin majority in Leinster House.

The Hard Left in Northern Ireland has only a few ways forward. Firstly, depending on who wins the British Labour Party leadership, it could hope that a new Labour leader will give the green light politically for the party to formally contest elections in the Province.

Or, the Left would relaunch the former post-partition Communist Party of Northern Ireland as a breakaway from the Communist Party of Ireland.

But all of these movements, while workable on paper, are still fringe movements in practice.

Just as Unionism requires a Vanguard-style grassroots movement to bring about any hope of Unionist unity, so too, will the peace generation of the Left have to develop the grassroots Red Alliance pressure group as part of a mainstream party structure.

Alliance has representation at local council level, the Assembly - even in the Stormont Executive - Westminster, and even before 31 January, had an MEP in leader Naomi Long.

Assemblyman Lunn and his generation have had their day and they must be praised, respected and lauded for their achievements. But the new generation of Hard Left Alliance activists must now have their day - hence the vital importance of Red Alliance in developing the Broad Left coalition in Northern Ireland.

Political direction in 2020 Irish politics is now from the bottom up; not the leadership down. Red Alliance is that vehicle whereby fireside chats become genuine political policies in which Red Alliance can influence overall party policy from within by getting involved in Alliance constituency associations, branches and events.

As yet, the Red Alliance pressure group may only have a handful of activists, sympathisers and voters connected to the Alliance Party and does not have the clout on a scale of the old Ulster Monday Club which once dominated the Ulster Unionist Party, or the staunchly pro-Brexit ERG within the Tory Party, but at least its up and running - and that’s a comprehensive start!

Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter

Listen to Dr John Coulter’s religious show, Call In Coulter, every Saturday morning around 9.30 am on Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM, or listen online at www.thisissunshine.com

Time For The Red Alliance Faction To Flex Muscles!

In this third part of his series on the way forward for the main political parties in the North, Political Commentator Dr John Coulter examines the future for the Alliance Party with the movement becoming a broad Left alliance and rebranding itself as the Liberal Democratic Alliance.

Back To Basics - Alliance Party

Gerry O'Halloran rips into the Alliance Party over its shameful abandonment of vulnerable people. Gerry O'Halloran is part of a group of carers campaigning against closures of mental health and learning disability day centres in Belfast.

Alliance Party Of Northern Ireland ~ Neither Useful Nor Ornamental

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