The Belfast Telegraph did a poll last year that showed 52% of Catholics in NI actually now support remaining in the union rather than joining Ireland. I'd think that the Alliance could be in a good position to grow - at the expense of the SDLP and UUP.
I still root for the UUP, but I almost wish it would just die off already so that a re-founded Conservative party could try to bring NI politics into some sort of non-sectarian mainstream. It always seems odd to me that not only does NI have its own regionalist parties, but that none of the main UK parties are competitive or even run there.
There have been sporadic attempts to get the mainland parties standing in NI but without much success. The SDLP...what's the American term we don't use....er............caucus, that's it......caucus with Labour, and the Alliance is the LibDem's sister party, so that's sort of, kind of the same thing.
When the Conservatives and UUP joined together at the 2010 election as the clumsily named "UCUNF", it was a flop.
Even then, if Labour to be in government, the SDLP would still be considered part of the opposition, right?
