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This week, Junior Ministers Bell and Anderson branded golf clubs as hotbeds of sectarianism. In fairness, Mr Bell apologised in rapid order, although I suspect his alternative was Peter Robinson inserting a 5 Iron somewhere as inappropriate as the original comment.

But Ms Anderson not only took her time to withdraw, she also murdered the English language when she finally said:

“Of course I do regret the confusion it has caused. I do apologise for anyone who misunderstood the way I was using the metaphor.”

Metaphor? Metaphor!! A metaphor is a figure of speech, using words in a non-literal way, as in, “Ms Anderson’s apology murdered the term metaphor”.

Clearly, I am not accusing her of actually committing murder. I am using a figure of speech to illustrate how she has twisted what I consider the greatest language on Planet Earth to cover her inability to woman-up and just say ‘sorry’.

May I suggest next time the Jun Min replaces “Of course I do regret the confusion it has caused. I do apologise for anyone who misunderstood the way I was using the metaphor” with “I was wrong, and I apologise.”

We are human. We all make mistakes. It’s how you pick yourself up that counts.

I first encountered Brian McLaughlin on a Wednesday before Christmas at Regent House school in Newtownards. He was a back row forward. So was I. This was so long ago that you could expect your average rugby club after dinner speech to include the line: “I’ve seen better wings on chickens!” Indeed ……

To say Brian’s team won the match that day would hardly do justice to the occasion. We were trounced. The Regent pack included icons, including McLaughlin, Philip Matthews and Nigel Carr.Brian, in my experience, is a winner.

Tomorrow, he coaches another team of icons in the Heineken Cup Final against Leinster at Twickenham. I can put it no more simply than this: STAND UP FOR THE ULSTERMEN!

With six days to go to the Ulster Unionist Leadership Election, I hope everyone who has a vote will use it. Over the last two weeks, I have sensed a real excitement about this moment in the Party’s history and a definite mood for change. It would be good to see that reflected on Saturday morning at the Ramada.
In recent years, the Party has searched for the “Big Idea” to turn around our fortunes.
If there is a big idea, it is not Unionist Unity; it is not a Conservative Link, be it UCUNF or NICUP; nor is it Opposition on Monday morning (remembering, of course, there will be no one there to see it happen, the Assembly going into Recess on Friday).
No, if there is a big idea, it is ourselves; that we are the masters of our own destiny. When we offer better policies, better communicated, and a better organisation, better resourced, we can hit the ground and work hard to reconnect with the tens of thousands of pro-union voters who feel they currently do not have a party to support or to represent them. If we can hold our core vote and attract the disaffected, we are back in business.
Saturday is about Leadership for the next five to ten years, not about policies for the next five to ten weeks. I have made my position clear: there is little point wanting to serve, or offering the best vision for the future, if you do not have the power to deliver.
John McCallister and I agree that we do not have enough power and influence at present. Where we disagree is how to fix it. I want to increase our power base in councils, the House of Commons, Europe and the NI Assembly. I do not see that being achieved by walking away.
The future is in our own hands. It does not come from associating with others. It is a big stretch to turn ‘never say never’ about possible talks into being open to doing deals. The only deal worth doing for my Party, is a commitment among ourselves to work collectively to bring cohesion and coherence to the public.

Monday
• Constituency business
• Spokespeople’s Meeting
• Assembly Group Meeting
• Speech, European Day for the victims of Terrorism
• Speech on Programme for Goivernment http://tinyurl.com/88uy6zb
• Question Time, Social Development and ODFDFM Private Party business
• Briefing, Environment Spokesperson and Ards Traders
• Constituency business
Tuesday
• Private Business breakfast
• Constituency Office
• Assembly Group Meeting
• Question Time, DCAL and Education
• Private Party Business
Wednesday
• Private Party business

Thursday
• Constituency business
• Nolan Show, BBC Radio Ulster, opposing pay rise for MLAs
• Launch of Party Leadership campaign
• Constituency business
• St Patrick’s Day Reception, British-Irish Secretariat

Friday
• Constituency office and business all day

Saturday
• Private Party business

Having launched my campaign on Thursday morning, I was pleased to have a great straw poll test of the reaction that every evening. I attended the St Patrick’s Day drinks at the British-Irish Secretariat in Belfast City Centre. There you find in a single room a rare cross-section of our society, unionist, nationalist; community and voluntary sector; business leaders; academics; politicians and their advisers; ministers and priests. It is always a very pleasant occasion. This year, it was simply affirming.

What has struck a note is my desire to begin with ourselves, the Ulster Unionist Party, its members and its organisation. From a businessman whose acumen I respect, through a leading churchman, to political analysts, they all gave their nod of approval to my intention to start my Leadership, if chosen, by moving the Party forward as a business. We are a business. Politics is a business, and any business needs to make a profit. In our case, that is measured in power, not pounds and pence. And like any business, how people view your business depends on what you do with your profit.

For me, making the Ulster Unionist Party more profitable is a means to an end, namely getting control of the levers that allow you to properly serve the people – all the people of Northern Ireland. It is all fine and well having the best policies, which we have had for years, but you need power to exercise influence, make changes, and drive a positive, pluralist future in which everyone can prosper, economically, socially and culturally. Worse, without power, those with it will simply re-package your ideas and claim them for their own.

In the last couple of months, I have run the Party’s internal consultation process on our response to the Executive’s Economic Strategy. It was heart-warming to see so many party members volunteer to give up an evening to add their know-how to the mix. More recently, after being appointed as Education Spokesperson, I put a call out for volunteers to join an advisory panel on all matters educational. The response was equally positive. What it tells me is that we are a large membership-based organisation, full of members bursting with skills, experience and expertise, just waiting to be asked to volunteer.

The first rule of marketing is to make what you are selling easy to buy. It would not be washing our dirty linen in public to suggest we are failing that test. In the last week, following Tom Elliott’s decision to stand down, I have been inspired by the number of people who have made unsolicited approaches, by phone, cold call to the Constituency Office, social media, and by simply walking up me in the street, to articulate their hope that I might just be the missing element that would make them start voting Unionist again.

This is not to admit there are those who still want this contest to be over policies. But did Tony Blair revive Labour’s fortunes with policies? No, he began with the structures and organisation of his Party, and when he had that right, he was able to follow the first rule of marketing so successfully, he led Labour to more back-to-back General election victories than any Leader in their history. Yes, he failed to deal with the tensions with Gordon Brown and that lesson is not lost on me. I am more in the Abraham Lincoln “Team of Rivals” mould, I am not one for a cabinet of yes men.

The mood of the Ulster Unionist Party last time was for continuity, from Sir Reg Empey to Tom Elliott. I get a clear message that the mood this time is for change. I get the equally compelling message that the tens of thousands in Northern Ireland who do not vote who crave someone and something to offer their allegiance.

I sense a Party and a people longing for hope, not in the Orwellian “You must not be negative” sense that we are hearing from the First Minister and deputy First Minister, but in the sense of a devolved government that is tuned in and listening to what people need, want and aspire to.

It’s the economy stupid. I shall press for a government that recognisees it is as much a part of the problem as the solution. For example, we could open up the massive public sector procurement budget to make it as easy for our small indigenous firms to get a slice of the cake as the Welsh do with their Opening Doors policy. We could start taking decisions ourselves, not creating Commissions and Quangoes and paying consultants to do our work for us. We could recognise we have a generation of young people who need to experience the work environment soon, or they might never experience it. The Ulster Unionist Party and the people want the same thing: action and opportunity.

photo courtesy Pacemaker.

Today, I formally announced my candidacy for Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party:

“I would like to pay personal tribute to our current Leader, Tom Elliott MLA. Tom was one of the few to telephone me when I experienced the bitter taste of defeat in my first attempt to get elected in 2010. It was a huge comfort at the time, and we have developed a close professional relationship ever since.

“In my view, just as the late Harold McCusker is the best Leader my Party never had, so Tom Elliott will prove the most under-valued we did have.

“When Tom indicated his intention to stand down, I said I would be in listening mode. What I have heard has both surprised and inspired me. The mood of the Party this time seems to be for change and I am thankful to discover the breadth and depth of support for me within the Party throughout Northern Ireland, as well as the pledges of future support from the many unionists who do not currently vote for anyone.

“While none of the three candidates commands a majority of the Assembly Grouping, I am grateful to those who have indicated their support: Roy Beggs, Jo-Anne Dobson, Danny Kinahan and Sandra Overend. I look forward to working closely with all of them on their portfolios, as well as campaigning for more new faces in politics, male and female.

“I am also gratified by the unsolicited personal support of eight members of the eleven-strong Ulster Young Unionist Council and members of the Ulster Women’s Unionist Council. Thanks also to the many Councillors from across the Province who are publicly backing my candidacy, as well as the Lords Rogan and Laird.

“But above all, I am thankful to the many and varied pledges of support from the membership, across all constituency associations.

“My message is that we have reached a fundamental point in the Party’s history. This is a contest about who has the Leadership skills that will be required to bring about a step-change in Ulster Unionist fortunes. Do not let this descend into a debate on the policies that come and go as the political and economic environment changes. Instead, let us focus on what is needed to revive and restore the Ulster Unionist Party.

“This is about the candidate who can engage, inspire and motivate.

“It is a question of who can bring cohesion to a massive membership organisation that has forgotten how to respect itself and once again be proud of who we are, what we have done, and what we offer.

“It is about who can deliver the essential vision of better politics, better communicated, together with better organisation, better resourced.

“In terms of politics, I suspect I am the only MLA who has walked in both Sinn Féin Headquarters at Connelly House on the Falls Road, and the DUP HQ on Dundela Avenue, to publicly question both about the weaknesses of their positions.

“I offer prior experience at a senior level of Leadership in both the private and public sector, having been Managing Director of a private sector company, and a Commissioner at the Commission for Victims and Survivors.
“I have ideas that will add greatly to our capacity to do the business of politics, and those plans have tested well with members.

“That said, I know much of the focus will be on policies, not Leadership skills, so for the record, I do not favour a blind leap into Opposition, while there is no formal framework to accommodate it.

“I sense many of our citizens are not convinced they are getting value for money from paying MLAs to govern. It would be a big step to ask them to pay MLAs who voluntarily give up the responsibility of governing, especially in the week we are offered an 11% pay rise.

“New systems of government, which bring greater scrutiny and accountability would be a very positive development, a necessary next step on our political journey.

“As for Unionist Unity, I have no objection to a debate on what that means, but after so many years as a broadcast journalist, interviewing senior DUP figures, and my more recent experience of fielding their invective in the Assembly Chamber, I am entirely sceptical about what would motivate them to call for co-operation beyond self-interest.

“What I believe would better serve the people of Northern Ireland is a smaller, light touch government, aware, embedded and responsive to local people and their needs.

“My vision for Northern Ireland is a government that lets teachers teach, nurses and doctors tend to the sick, business people do business, creating jobs, generating wealth and paying the taxes that fund public services.

“My vision is a move away from an obsession with the processes of government to a determination to deliver positive outcomes.

“My vision is of a system of government that commands respect, support and enough interest that people start voting again.”

ENDS

The reading at Granshaw Church this morning was James, Chapter 4, Verses 13 to 17, ending thus:

“So then, those who do not do the good they know they should do, are guilty of sin”

Amen.

I am feeling subdued, reflecting on Tom Elliott’s decision to stand down as Ulster Unionist Party Leader. I supported Tom in his bid to become Leader; I have supported him throughout his Leadership, privately and publicly; so, it with sadness and regret that I read his statement indicating he will not allow his name to go forward for re-election as Leader at the AGM.

I am looking at his statement, and this leaps off the page: “I am also well aware that some people have not given me a fair opportunity …”

I am tired of those who call Tom a “good man”. Two points on that. First of all, there is a lot more to Tom than being a “good man”. He is a very able politician, and I hope he goes on to prove that again and again, in whatever role is next for him.

Secondly, what is wrong with being a “good man”? We should all stop and reflect on whether we have created a political environment in which a “good man” cannot flourish. If that is the case, then those who have made their living out of politics over the last few decades have fashioned a cold house for the good men and women with new blood who are essential to change the dynamic and bring new thinking to the government of Northern Ireland.

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Robert Laurence Binyon