Return of the Mike…

He’s “letting all the people know” that he’s “back to run the show” it’s the “Return of the …” Mike. I am showing my age by breaking out these lyrics but when they work, they work.

That is right, Mike Nesbitt is to be formally ratified as Ulster Unionist Party leader at an extraordinary general meeting of the party on September 14 and he has vowed to ‘continue Doug Beattie’s progressive outreach’.

I was rather surprised when he emerged as the replacement for Mr Beattie, having already had a go as party leader; 2012-2017. He resigned the leadership after the 2017 Assembly election and while there are not many resignation speeches that I do remember, because let’s be honest, our politicians resign all the time, I do remember his.

“The buck stops here”, the archaic notion of accountability a rather refreshing opener from one of our politicians. The gist of the remainder of his speech was that during the election campaign, he had confused Northern Ireland with some imagined “normal democracy”, where the electorate would vote for politicians based “on performance”, or their positions on the “economy, education, health and housing”. He wraps up by noting that the election results suggest “this society is more polarised that ever” and nowhere near the “first post-sectarian election” that he thought this would be.

He is a former broadcaster and as such knows how to deliver a line and I always felt that this ‘polish’ held him back from being endearing or affable but during his resignation speech he seemed, in my opinion, genuine.

This speech was in 2017, and I don’t feel that now, in 2024, we are any less polarised or any more “normal”, so why has he returned as leader? Could it be that Mr Nesbitt, on realising that our democracy is not “normal”, has a plan on how to win the electorate over? I guess time will tell and if not, he will once again have to exit the stage while declaring, “The buck stops here“.

Sarah Kirkwood is from Belfast and works as a medical secretary.