The Past We Inherit, the Future We Build.

As the election dust settles and we are left crunching the numbers in areas across the North the implications for the future of the party are stark. For many it feels as if we have all been plunged into the deluge once more. It was far from the result we were hoping for and the loss of so many stellar SDLP councillors will only create more difficulties for the party in the years to come as we struggle for local presence in many parts of the 11 councils.

It is true that without the Assembly our relevancy in the public mind has diminished and the Nationalist electorate have overwhelmingly chosen Sinn Féin, over us, as the option to hit back at DUP intransigence. To an extent it feels as if we are in limbo until we once again can sit on the blue seats at Stormont.

But as much as we can look at the circumstances of this election, and the difficulties it provided, to explain how we have gotten here, we must take ownership of our own failure. We are failing to offer the electorate a genuine alternative nor sparking the public imagination on our key talking points, thus continuing to struggle attracting and retaining votes and foot soldiers.

My fellow members, in 2020 in our 50th anniversary year I wrote to you about Recapturing our Purpose as a party. Many of the core thoughts expressed then still resonate with me today about where we are and where we should go.

“If we are to once again find our purpose as a party we can’t revert back to the way things were in the past by solely relying on our core voter base and hoping for the best. Our success as a party will not be found in outscoring our political opponents nor in outbidding their rhetoric but by offering a genuine alternative for the people of Northern Ireland.”

Continuing to hope our base continually comes out for us is not a winning strategy. We cannot have another election like last Thursday.

There will be many difficult conversations happening currently right across the party. From here we must engage in a genuine attempt to attract new voters by clarifying our identity, messaging and purpose, and get back to the basics of putting in the hard graft. Adequate attention must also be given to the level of resources and support offered to our candidates from here on, not just from the party centrally but from our members as well.

At our last general election we were able to prove that when we do offer a genuine alternative with a clear message it will attract votes and we can do it once more.

As our focus now rests with the general election next year and beyond we must take the honest truths that some of the analysis in the media offers regarding our party’s performance at the local elections. The electorate’s perception of the party is drawn from our history, not our politics. We have yet been able to re-invent ourselves and the position it’s left us in should be taken seriously.

However I take heart in the slogan of the Durham Miners: “the past we inherit, the future we build”. The past we have inherited as a party is a rich and significant one but it is hard not to conclude that in a way it is holding us back. We must find our place in the conversations of today, not in the conversations of yesterday.

I write this not to criticise but encourage the work of renewal which is work we all must undertake. Only together can we do this.

There are bright moments to take from these local elections, such as the many outstanding young candidates who put themselves forward for election, the election of Cllr Lilian Seenoi-Barr in Foyleside as the first black councillor ever elected in the North, the election of the brilliant Cllr Paul Doherty in Black Mountain and a gain in my own home DEA of Moyola as Cllr Denise Johnston was elected and as such became the first SDLP councillor elected in Bellaghy and Castledawson since 2001.

We must learn from those like Cllr Adam Gannon, Cllr Séamas de Faoite and Cllr Gary McKeown who were able to increase their own votes despite the swing away from the party. They have effectively publicised their efforts in their local communities over their last term, engaging in fruitful community activism and solidifying their seats in the process. This should be a blueprint for all our 2027 candidates.

It would also be amiss to not acknowledge the recent internal efforts to get the SDLP back on track, most evident to me at our recent conference in St Columb’s Hall in Derry. The sun hasn’t set on the SDLP yet but we have a long way to go.

Our problems won’t be adequately identified, never mind solved, in a blog article. The scale of the job ahead is large and complex and success won’t be delivered by knee jerk reactions to these election results. In the meantime we as members of this party now have a duty to do all that we can to build our movement by bringing in new voices and activists to rebuild our grassroots. It is imperative we soldier on continuing the work of building the SDLP of the future so we may fulfil our ambitions of ending communal and economic division thus building the new Ireland we seek.

As SDLP Youth gather tomorrow in Belfast to elect a new executive committee and vote on motions I look forward to engaging with fellow young members and hearing fresh perspectives about where we go from here. Together we can build the common ground, together we can build our shared future.

Paul McErlean is a former chairperson of SDLP Youth and recent election agent for the newly elected Councillor Denise Johnston in the Moyola DEA, Mid Ulster.