Sir, – The election of two People Before Profit MLAs in the North is welcome if, as is their intention, they add backbone to the fight against austerity and can unite that effort across the island. If they add substantively (as I’m sure they will) to the demand for marriage equality and a women’s right to choose, even better.
On the subject of whether PBP is politically “orange or green” it is , despite PBP rhetoric, perceived as left-wing, ie green or nationalist. It is impossible to escape this dichotomy, which reflects attitudes for (orange) or against (green) the state of Northern Ireland. It would appear that PBP recognises this in practical terms. Its successful candidates stood in two overwhelmingly nationalist or green constituencies.
Polling evidence suggests that PBP voters are very clear on this issue.
Analysis of the distribution of Gerry Carroll’s surplus vote in West Belfast illustrates the position. Of 3,117 votes above the 5,182 quota, only 12 votes were non-transferable. This alone demonstrates a high degree of political acuity.
Sinn Féin received 1,546 votes proportionately, that is 50 per cent of Mr Carroll’s 8,299 second-preference votes. And 761 votes, 25 per cent, went to the SDLP. Of the remaining candidates (all unsuccessful), a mere 12.5 per cent went to two parties also claiming to be not orange or green, 253 to the Workers Party and 136 to Alliance. The Green (environmentally as distinct from politically) Party received 379 votes.
That leaves the Unionist and Democratic Unionist parties receiving 15 votes each. In other words, less than 1 per cent of PBP voters in West Belfast veered toward the distinctly orange shade of the political spectrum, while more than 75 per cent were green in their second-preference political complexion.
By any reckoning PBP voters discriminated in favour of green nationalist or republican politics and possibly saw themselves as a redder shade. That is not so strange since nationalist voters generally are more liberal and left wing, and less sectarian, than the unionist variety. This is a function of the development of green and orange politics over many years, and is a reflection of the nature of the northern state. Of course PBP should, as have others before, seek to win orange voters to their non-sectarian position. I suspect, however, that these voters will perceive them to be as green as have voters in West Belfast. – Yours, etc,
NIALL MEEHAN,
Cabra, Dublin 7.