Arriving at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Belfast for their annual conference this weekend, DUP members – were they not known for their distaste for the ‘devil’s buttermilk’ – must have felt like a stiff drink was in order.
Since their last gathering, they have witnessed yet another change in leader – a fourth in four years – with Gavin Robinson replacing Sir Jeffrey Donaldson following his shock arrest on historical sex offence charges, which he has denied.
The party has stumbled back into Stormont following a two-year huff which achieved little more than accelerating the deterioration of public services, taking up the post of Deputy First Minister alongside Michelle O’Neill on the back of a devolution deal it openly admits was oversold.
And it has emerged bloodied and bruised from another election, losing three of its eight MPs and seeing conference favourites Gregory Campbell and Sammy Wilson reduced to much-diminished figures.
Once master of all it surveyed, it all points to a party in turmoil and decline, losing power and influence and the confidence of voters.
An archive photograph published elsewhere in today’s edition, showing Peter Robinson surrounded by slogans angrily declaring that ‘The DUP says No’, sums up much of its problems.
The ‘No’ in question may have been in answer to the Anglo-Irish Agreement, but for the new or lapsed voters the party needs to attract it could just as easily mean the Good Friday Agreement, language rights, same-sex marriage, cross-border cooperation, the European Union... the list goes on.
Advice was also offered this week this week by a former DUP special adviser in a lengthy article for The Critic magazine, headlined ‘Unionism has to wise up’.
Acknowledging the party is a “negative brand”, Lee Reynolds suggested it needs to be “redefined up to and including a new name” – an intriguing proposition.
Failing to move with the times will see voters move on, with the one-time director of policy warning that unionism “survived the fall of the UUP, and it could survive ours”.
Key to changing its image will be producing a positive, confident, forward-looking vision, rather than continually resisting change and re-fighting battles of the past.
The good news for Gavin Robinson is that with no elections on the horizon, there is time to regroup and rethink what the DUP – or whatever it may be called – really represents.
However, in common with all the executive parties, what cannot wait is tangible evidence that its ministers and the devolved institutions more generally can deliver for the benefit of voters.
If the DUP cannot make a convincing argument that Stormont can improve lives, it should not be surprised if people look elsewhere for answers.
