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Publication Irish News
Date Friday 23rd April 2010
This election is important to everyone. I have travelled across the north listening to people and I know that the main concern is jobs.
That's why the SDLP has an ambitious agenda to get the north back to work.
The top priority in our manifesto is to create thousands of new jobs - in tourism, construction, the green economy - and by corporation tax harmonisation on the island.
As well as an all-out push for job creation, we will oppose cuts to services, which will be on the agenda whoever forms the next Westminster government.
So Westminster is vital to the north. Those who say it does not matter anymore are just wrong.
London determines how much our executive can spend on things like health, housing and education.
Other important matters such as social security, taxation and pensions are determined there too.
Therefore, it is essential that the north is represented by MPs who will actually take their seats and turn up to do the work.
Sinn Fein says there is no need to actually be there. Again they are totally wrong.
The proof is Mark Durkan, who regularly intervenes in the Commons to make the government change its policy or change the law.
One example is when he tabled amendments to pension legislation, securing substantial payouts for hundreds of pensioners of the Desmonds textile group in the north. He couldn't have done it if he hadn't been there.
It was also due to SDLP MPs that the British government was forced to change tack on the abolition of childcare vouchers, the scrapping of the 10p tax rate and VAT on car seats.
We also opposed the war in Iraq. Again and again the SDLP was there where it mattered, when it mattered.
In people like Mark, Alasdair McDonnell and others, the SDLP has the talented, committed people who will work Westminster for all our people. We don't just want to win seats - we want to work the seats.
We are now entering a new political era where people are crying out for new politics and the SDLP is determined to provide that leadership.
Sinn Fein's election strategy appears to combine attacks on me, and my party, alongside an attempt to sectarianise marginal constituencies. In a recent speech I'm told the Sinn Fein leader criticized us 25 times.
The Alex Maskey 'stunt' in South Belfast was designed to look like nationalist solidarity but was really intended to produce a single unionist candidate, so that Alasdair McDonnell - Sinn Fein's real target - would lose his seat.
People see the hypocrisy in this given that Maskey described a unionist pact in Fermanagh as "grubby and sectarian".
The SDLP rejects slanging matches and stunts. We will continue to advance the new politics.
The person who best represents new politics is our Fermanagh and South Tyrone candidate, Fearghal McKinney.
He is one of Fermanagh's favourite sons who despises sectarianism. A real breath of fresh air in this campaign. He is easily the best candidate.
That is why it is ridiculous that anyone should suggest he stand aside to facilitate a sectarian headcount - to the advantage of someone who doesn't think Westminster is important and who won't take their seat.
I appeal to Sinn Fein to drop the tribal politics and take their seats at Westminster. We are prepared to work with them there in the best interests of the north.
I should not have to remind them that true republicanism is about the unity of Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter.
How can Sinn Fein call themselves true republicans when they seek to drive people back into the sectarian trenches?
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