Colum Eastwood was speculating this week about what might be in the programme for government should Stormont get up and running. You might be forgiven for thinking he’s off his rocker.
I’m happy to be proved wrong, but the prospects for a new executive seem remote. The DUP has painted itself into a corner, and the burnt orange emulsion they’ve used is slow drying.
It seems to be of no concern to the DUP that their political ineptitude has consequences. Social, economic and political stability has been sacrificed on the altar of unionist purity.
One of the less well understood jobs of political parties is the imperative for them to manage their voters’ expectations. The DUP’s failure to do that is one of the reasons why unionism is in the state it is in today. And it is why the unionist electorate has failed to grasp the simple truth that the Windsor Framework/Northern Ireland Protocol is a done deal.
Since Sunningdale, if not before, pretty well every opportunity unionists have had to secure a viable future for Northern Ireland has been rejected; voters have been persuaded to put their faith in political promises that are unattainable; and the outcome is predicable.
Stalemate is the default unionist position; stalemate is what we’ve got; and stalemate it’s likely to remain.
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The British and Irish governments are both at the ‘fag end’ stage of their mandates. Sunak is totally disinterested in what happens here. Meanwhile, the Irish government does not want to give a ‘leg-up’ to Sinn Féin, its arch-nemesis.
But I digress. Given where we are at, and given he knows the SDLP is not going to be sitting at the table hammering out a programme for government; you’ve got to admire Eastwood’s determination to push for policies which could be transformational.
Someone needs to be keeping us focused on the things that matter. And having embraced the role of ‘opposition’, that is precisely the SDLP’s job.
Number One on Eastwood’s list for a future programme for government is the establishment of a full-scale university for Derry.
What should have been a straightforward educational matter in the sixties, was turned into a sectarian issue by the malign decision to locate Northern Ireland’s second university at Coleraine, with Magee as an off-shoot.
In the years that followed, that injustice – Derry has been a place of learning since the first millennium – was compounded by the University of Ulster’s obsession with Queen’s. Rather than forging its own path, UU reshaped itself as a rival civic university – a jealous sibling trying to be its older brother, rather than being itself.
That it was allowed to do so is testimony to the ineptitude of successive administrations during direct rule and under devolved government. Its expansion beyond its small footprint in Belfast’s College of Art, should never have been allowed.
The resources – millions upon millions – could and should have been directed elsewhere.
It is difficult to quantify the loss there has been to the north-west of Ireland because of this misguided educational policy combined with UU’s opportunism. There is overwhelming evidence of a causal link between universities and the growth in economic, social and cultural capital in the places where they reside.
Universities connect regions to national and international networks, they attract investment, they are a magnet for high-tech industries which want to co-locate beside those who are creating knowledge.
That was well understood by the cross-community campaign for a university in Derry spearheaded by John Hume in the 1960s. Unionists and nationalists marched side by side because they had a common cause, because they recognised that education was key to transforming the city and the region.
Those reasons are as compelling today; and there is some consolation to be taken in the recent investment in Magee of some £40 million from the Irish government’s Shared Ireland fund. But that is not enough.
I am sure it will say differently, but psychologically UU’s focus is now resolutely in Belfast. Head-office mentality rules. Magee will always be an afterthought when decisions are being made in the ‘institutional’ interest. It’s not necessarily malicious, it is just a fact of life.
Investment from the two governments, Europe and the US, among others, alongside a rebalancing of resources from the higher education budget, would provide the bedrock for a new institution.
But crucially, Magee needs to be given its independence, taking its place alongside Ireland’s universities, ancient and modern; and competing on a world stage. Eastwood is right, but it should happen now rather than having to wait until Jeffrey Donaldson comes to his senses.
Tom Collins is a graduate of the New University of Ulster and worked at Queen's University Belfast from 1999 to 2010.
