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A VOTE FOR THE SDLP IS A WASTED VOTE

RECENT FEATURE of general elections in West Belfast has been the readiness of unionist and loyalist voters to lend their votes to the SDLP candidate in order to unseat Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin. This tactic succeeded in 1992 before the constituency boundaries were redrawn in 1997 to include Poleglass and Twinbrook. It cannot work this time.

Anyway, how would SDLP success work out? Would yet another SDLP bum on the green leather seats at Westminster benefit you? In fact a vote for the SDLP allows them to boast that they can attract Protestant votes although the truth is that we only see them at election time. They pocket these votes and then neglect the Protestant parts of the constituency. Indeed, under the part of the Good Friday Agreement that institutionalises and entrenches sectarianism, they can only act as part of a Catholic nationalist bloc.

Let’s not kid ourselves. The SDLP do nothing to deserve their boastfulness. Joe Hendron’s five years in the Westminster parliament brought no more benefit to the Shankill, Highfield or Suffolk than Gerry Adams ever did.

So, don’t waste your vote by giving the SDLP a credibility that they don’t deserve. Don’t vote for a party that takes your support for granted. Vote for a real alternative to the flawed Good Friday Agreement. Vote Independence. Vote Ulster Third Way.

YOUR CANDIDATE, David Kerr is a founder member of Third Way. He previously contested one of the Northern Ireland seats in the 1994 European Election. He edits the quarterly Ulster Nation magazine and the website, www.ulsternation.org.uk/ He is a regular contributor to Third Way magazine and writes articles on the Ulster situation for a number of other journals. He is the author of The Real McCoy, a short biography of W F McCoy QC, the ‘prophet of Ulster-nationalism’.

David, a keen cyclist, has a strong interest in environmental, transport and housing issues. A resident of the constituency, he has been active in a number of community projects in North and West Belfast over the past twelve years. David describes himself as a non-sectarian, radical Ulster-nationalist.

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A THIRD WAY FOR ULSTER