‘People need a bit of hope’: cost of living crisis challenges unionism as key election issue in Belfast East | Northern Ireland
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eBelfast’s streetscape resembles a historical tapestry. Murals commemorate the Titanic, First World War battles and loyalist paramilitaries – faded eras of shipbuilding, battles with the Germans and fighting back against the IRA and Catholics during the Troubles.
The impression is of a constituency held at bay, a perennial bastion of working-class trade unionism, but this is deceptive. Harland & Wolff’s giant yellow cranes still dominate the skyline, but the shipyard’s glory days are Long gone. Neighborhoods that relied on traditional industries fell apart, while other areas gentrified amid a growing population of tech workers and other well-paid professionals who don’t paint their curbs red, white, and blue.
This changed the political differences in the constituency and led to two-tiered elections. It is a contest between Unionists and the Non-Aligned group known as “none of the two” – neither nationalist nor unionist – on the constitutional future of Northern Ireland and at the same time a forum for ways to tackle poverty, crumbling public services, crime, immigration and the climate crisis.
“The cost of living crisis, that’s number one,” said Brian Anderson, a Methodist priest who runs the East Belfast Mission, a center for voluntary groups on lower Newtownards Road. “Every day we distribute 40 packages of food. People also need help with their gas and electricity bills.’
The constituency has a high proportion of elderly people and single-parent families, who face some of the longest hospital waiting times in the UK. Whoever represents the constituency in Westminster should lobby to remove the two-child allowance cap, Anderson said. “You wouldn’t say to a child, ‘you’re the third child, you can’t go to the doctor’, but that’s what people are dealing with. People need more money and to be encouraged to go back to work. They need a little hope.”
Yet when voters go to the polls, the perceived need to strengthen the union with the UK or settle scores within unionism may outweigh bread-and-butter issues, the minister said. “This is a hugely important election for unionism.” The election pits Gavin Robinson, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), against Naomi Long, leader of the centrist Inter-Community Alliance. She wrested the seat from the DUP in 2010 in a dramatic showdown, then narrowly lost to Robinson at the next election.
Sinn Féin is not contesting here and the Social Democratic and Labor Party (SDLP), Ulster Unionists and the Greens are not expected to make much of a dent in what is effectively a two-horse race between Robinson and Long. Observers say their rematch is on a knife’s edge.
Victory for Long, who is justice minister in the Stormont executive, would boost the Alliance as a vehicle for voters fed up with Green-Orange sectarianism. The party does not take a position on Irish unity and says it is focused on achieving targets Northern Ireland work.
Defeat for Robinson would decapitate the DUP and upend a party still reeling from the fall of Sir Geoffrey Donaldson, who resigned as leader in March after being accused of rape and other sexual crimes. He is standing down as MP for Lagan Valley, but a court hearing scheduled for July 3 – the eve of the election – will keep the case in the headlines.
If the DUP loses here or anywhere else, Sinn Féin could become the largest Westminster party in Northern Ireland, although it has refrained from stepping up its calls for a referendum on Irish unity. Catholics now outnumber Protestants and Sinn Féin is the largest party at local and parliamentary level. All this makes East Belfast a tense, high-stakes battleground for the DUP.
At the Larder, a community food hub on Belmont Road, some DUP supporters grumbled that the party had botched Brexit and bequeathed a border to the Irish Sea. Others groaned at the mention of Donaldson. Everyone complained about the cost of living.
“Food poverty is the biggest problem. This shouldn’t be happening in Northern Ireland,” said Colleen Roy, 65, a retired bank employee. Others around her table, sipping from cups labeled “it’s okay to not be okay,” nodded.
The larder is run from a former church where Long was baptized, but that doesn’t cut the ice with Roy. Robinson is a responsive constituency MP and Roy has no desire to get close to governing Dublin, she said. “The Alliance is moving towards a united Ireland and that is not what I want. I am British, Protestant and Unionist.”
Mark Magee, 56, a retired window cleaner, said he would also support Robinson. For all the DUP’s flaws – he cursed it during a two-year power-sharing boycott that paralyzed Stormont – it helps secure the union, Magee said. “I’ve voted DUP all my life and I’ll do it again.”
Robinson faces a challenge not only from the Alliance but also from John Ross of the Traditional Unionist Voice, a small, hard-line rival who wants the maritime border to be scrapped altogether. The more disillusioned DUP supporters back down, the better Long’s chance of winning.
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At the site of a loyalist bonfire near Foxglove Street – it will be lit on July 12 to celebrate the 1690 Battle of the Boyne – Jamie Graham, 21, a car valet, said he would vote to protect British identity. “If there is a united Ireland, our bands and bonfires, our culture will disappear. And there will be 10 times more immigrants.
Such sentiments diminish as you travel up the Newtownards Road towards Ballyhackamore, where the houses are larger and the accents more opulent. “I’m voting Alliance because I thought Sinn Féin and the DUP were fighting and hating each other,” said Linda, 68, who kept her surname. She accused the two parties that run Stormont with the Alliance and the Ulster Unionists of fiscal intemperance. “It’s like a welfare state.”
Patrick McEvoy, an 18-year-old first-time voter, said he wants a less segregated society. “My mother is Protestant, my father is Catholic and they support the Alliance, and I will too. I want Northern Ireland to be a good place to raise children. Public support for integrated education has risen to 69%, but only 8% of students attend integrated schools.
A appeal to Guardian readers in the constituency caused mixed reactions from mostly Alliance-leaning voters.
For Stephen Timms, a 62-year-old software engineer, the election is a chance to break up the Sinn Féin/DUP duopoly and tackle local issues such as public transport and paramilitary policing. On 15 June more than 1,000 men marched down Newtownards Road in a UVF show of force. Timms also wanted proactive preparatory work for a potential unification “to avoid the huge mistakes shown by Brexit”.
Chris, a senior civil servant, said the UK’s exit from the EU – despite most in Northern Ireland voting to remain – had turned it into a united Ireland. “The UK has become a dim-witted, corrupt mess with a streak of nastiness that I want nothing to be associated with.”
Robinson was a decent constituency MP but tarnished by his party, Chris said. “The DUP are pretty much the antithesis of everything I value.”
Despite all the polarization, there are efforts to bridge the divide. At the Larder grocery store, wealthier members willingly pay full price to subsidize others who pay a fraction, and the two groups mingle in the cafeteria. “It’s not just about eating, it’s about sharing and spending time together,” said Louise Ferguson, manager of the centre. Mark McCleary, a full-fare member, agreed. “The people you meet here have been great. This gives both parties an opportunity to meet.
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