SDLP leader Colum Eastwood addressing his party’s annual conference in Derry
The Foyle MP was addressing the party’s annual conference held today at St Columb’s Hall in Derry.
He accused the DUP, which voted against the Windsor Framework deal between the British Government and the EU, of “digging its heels in”.
He is expected to tell SDLP members that the choice facing the DUP is not about the Northern Ireland Protocol or framework, but whether they “can share power with their neighbours”.
Mr Eastwood told delegates that the DUP has “run out of excuses, run out of road and the public ran out of patience with them a long, long time ago”.
Here is an abridged version of the SDLP Leader’s speech:
“We are gathered here in the week that Westminster voted by 515 votes to 29 to back the new Windsor framework between the European Union and the British Government.
And yet despite that overwhelming vote, the DUP are still digging their heals in. To paraphrase a great man – if the word ‘No’ was removed from the English language Jeffrey, Jim and Jamie would be left speechless.
I know the irony is obviously lost on them – but it turns out that even British parliamentary democracy doesn’t cut the mustard with Ian Paisley Junior and the DUP.
And their chief whip has been secretly writing to British Government Ministers arguing against their own demands.
On Thursday, the Secretary of State said that the DUP had failed to come to terms with the significance of that massive majority in favour of the Windsor Framework.
He is right – but it also points to a much deeper reality and a more fundamental point.
Because 25 years on, the truth is that the DUP still haven’t come to terms with the Good Friday Agreement.
They still haven’t come to terms with the fact that in a negotiation you don’t get everything your own way.
They still haven’t come to terms with the fact that working together and governing together, means compromise.
It means you don’t get to dominate, it means you have to share.
And instead of running after Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and the ERG, it means sitting down with your neighbours and doing your best for this place we all call home.
So conference – the negotiation is over, the deal is done. It’s now decision time for the DUP.
And the choice now isn’t really about a protocol or a framework.
It’s about whether the DUP are prepared to share power with their neighbours.
So Jeffrey Donaldson and his party finally need to hear the message that the majority of people here have been roaring at them for the best part of a year.
After this week, the message they need to hear is very, very simple. The DUP need to get back to work or get out of the way.
They have run out of excuses, they have run out of road and the public ran out of patience with them a long, long time ago.
Jeffrey can forget about his seven tests.
There is only one test left.
The test is whether we all roll up our sleeves, get back to work and try to help people.
People who have been left without a government in the middle of a health service and cost of living crisis.
That’s the only test that really matters – it’s the only test that people should judge us
on.
Let’s get on with it.
And let me add a warning to the British Government too.
Keep your hands off the principle of consent.
It cannot be altered to buy off hardline unionism. We won’t allow it.
But Conference if their long term position is set against restoring our democratic institutions then they must take that decision in the knowledge that the democratic traditions of this island will respond.
We will not stand by as the strands of our agreement are pulled apart. Consent for the institutions of the agreement was sought based on an accommodation of three powerful sets of relationships.
Nationalists and unionists working together in Northern Ireland.
Ministers in the North and the South working together across this island.
And a new dynamic relationship between Britain and Ireland.
We now live with the Assembly institutions in suspension.
We live with the North-South institutions in suspension.
And we live with a new form of direct rule through Tory budgets set by Westminster
Ministers with no recourse to the people of the North.
Conference, we will not live with that anymore.
The great traditions that share this land must be reflected in it’s governance.
The road that the wreckers have set us on can lead to one of two new destinations.
Lasting reform of the Assembly to ensure that our people can work together in their common interests or a new shared British/Irish stewardship of the North.
There is no other way.
The SDLP has already set out an ambitious agenda for reform of the Assembly.
Under our proposals, the titles of the First Ministers would be made equal to reflect their equal standing in government.
We would return to co-nomination of the heads of government and require a weighted majority vote for their election.
We would reduce the number of votes subject to one party veto and end the abuse of the petition of concern to deny people their rights.
And we would introduce a new weighted majority vote to appoint the new Speaker.
It’s time to remove the poisonous politics of veto from the beginning of every mandate.
And let me say this too, conference, there is no better candidate to be the next Speaker than Patsy McGlone.
Not only is he well qualified and well tempered for the role, he has probably had more votes cast for him to become Speaker than any other candidate in the history of the Assembly.
Conference, the case for reform is self-evident. But the mandate of the last election first has to be respected.
We will work with every other party to reassert the primacy of our democracy and we will do it in a way that excludes no one and no tradition.
But if we are unable to secure lasting reform of the institutions then the only alternative is a new settlement that retains power with the Irish and British traditions that share this island.
Sharing power is no optional extra in our settlement – it is the engine of our agreement.
And if political parties will not work together, then there must be a new model of
shared stewardship between the British and Irish governments.
That is the only way to accommodate the identities, ambitions and aspirations of our people.
While our politics may be stuck in the present, we will not allow it to slip back to the past.
One tradition rule is gone and it is never, ever coming back.
This place only works when nationalism and unionism works together.
Its time to get back to that.
Conference, there is a reason why governance in this place matters.
Sharing power isn’t just about sharing out Ministerial Skodas.
It means taking decisions to transform this place and the lives of everyone who calls it home.
There has been far too little of that over the last 25 years.
Look at the society we have created.
500,000 people on waiting lists for hospital appointments.
One in four children living in poverty.
Ten thousand households deemed to be homeless.
Four in ten children in receipt of free school meals leaving school without 5 good GCSEs including English and Maths.
Whether it’s a reformed Assembly or shared stewardship – those are the challenges that we need to set our minds to.
That is what we mean when we say it’s time to get back to work. Conference, we also have to set our energy toward addressing the unbearable pressure on families across the North.
The £600 energy support scheme was a welcome break for many but it is no lasting solution.
It doesn’t even scratch the surface of the big challenges facing working families.
That is why the first priority for the SDLP opposition in a new Assembly will be to address the outrageous cost of childcare.
It is so compelling an idea – even Jeremy Hunt and the Tories get it.
There is no good reason why parents here are offered less than half of the free childcare given to parents elsewhere on these islands.
Working families see progress in Britain. They see the Irish government investing billions in a new childcare programme.
They are sick to death of childcare bills costing them more than their mortgage.
The childcare costs crisis is an emergency and it is a scandal that Stormont has let it go on this long.
So this is our pledge – the SDLP will work day and night to deliver 30 hours free childcare per week for the parents of all children under the age of five.
There will be no limit on our ambition to support working families.
Conference, we all know the threat posed by political vacuums in this place.
This party’s greatest achievement was bringing an end to the Anglo-Irish conflict and removing the boot of violence from the necks of our community.
But the peace we helped to secure is imperfect because it has failed to permanently root out paramilitary violence.
Whether it’s loyalist criminality that occupies and oppresses working class communities.
Or dissident republicans blindly ignoring the will of our people who want to live in peace.
We all have a responsibility to resist their influence.
That obligation was brought into sharp focus last month following the brutal attack on DCI John Caldwell in Omagh.
John was loading football gear into the back of his car after his son’s training session when he was shot multiple times.
A police officer in Ireland, dedicated to serving his community and supporting his children’s local team is no legitimate target.
There’s no such thing as a legitimate target.
I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to every member of the PSNI working to keep people safe in our community.
In the face of appalling violence, their bravery and dedication to service is an enduring reminder that for every individual determined to tear us apart, there are hundreds more committed to defending our peace.
This is a moment to rededicate ourselves to the primacy of peace and resistance against violence.
It is a moment for us all, one community and one people, to say we are never going back to this – not in our name.
Conference, let us pay tribute to the bravery of DCI John Caldwell and recommit ourselves today to our enduring belief that violence has no place in the campaign to unite our island.
Conference, I know that things are very difficult at the minute and it feels like we’re always being held back.
The dominance of division, deadlock and intransigence has a much broader impact than an empty building at Stormont.
It corrodes and corrupts our democratic institutions.
It erodes and erases faith in the value of public service.
It squanders the opportunity and the hope of the moment 25 years ago when we agreed that our people and our society deserved so much better.
But if we know anything in this place it is that people can change things.
I was a teenager who felt the euphoria that ran across our community when the people of Ireland voted to break free from the oppression of violence.
After so many years of hurt, people finally embraced the optimism of hope.
It was a real revolution.
I feel the hope of that time again.
I believe we have it in our power to lead a new revolution in Irish politics.
Conference, we have all been buffeted by a torrent of change over the last number of years that people here did not vote for and have had little hand in shaping.
None of us are insulated from its impact and we have all been subject to the chaos that has come in its wake.
But people across this island are now speaking openly about change.
It fills every corner of our lives from family dinner tables to work canteens, from pubs to football pitches.
We all now know that the future of our island is not fixed.
The shape of the society that we can become is not yet set.
The opportunity we have, all of us who share this island is to work together.
To spill our sweat in our substantial common interests and to imagine a new future together.
That future cannot be guided by a blind obsession with righting ancient wrongs.
It must be about reconciling our people, creating opportunity and prosperity for this and future generations.
Conference, reconciliation has to begin with reconciling yourself with the truth.
If we want to restore our place on the international stage,
If we want to rejoin the community of nations and get back home to the EU then it can only be done in a New Ireland.
And anyone serious about rejoining the European Union cannot sit this one out.”
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