UUP leader should try a new model – the GAA

IT is noteworthy that the first days of the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) by Tom Elliott are characterised by what he will apparently not do rather than what he is determined to accomplish.

Mr Elliott is skittish about attending GAA matches. He was also churlish about supporting Down in the all-Ireland football final. If Mr Elliott was really shrewd he would realise, as the incoming leader of a political party that has been consigned to the margins, no longer centrally relevant to society’s destiny and whose dwindling, aging membership grows more sedentary and apathetic, that he has much to learn from the GAA.

A new leader has political capital in the bank. A new leader ought to be abundant with energy, vision and novelty, not sclerotic, like the centurion guard of a tribe threatened with extinction.