For the second successive week Sinn Féin are having a bad time.

Martina Anderson MLA is the Sinn Féin Junior Minister in the Department of the First/Deputy First Minister. She combines this with being her Partys spokesperson on Outreach to the Unionist people. She is an odd choice. In 1985, already “on the run” for jumping bail on Terrorism charges, she was arrested with others in Scotland and jailed for thirteen years. She was released in 1998 as part of the Good Friday Agreement. So she probably doesnt inspire a lot of confidence in the target community for Sinn Féin “outreach”.

Seemingly at a conference (in County Donegal) for young Protestants and Catholics, mostly from Norn Iron, many Protestants walked out BEFORE Ms Anderson spoke to the Conference. This was ……..some claim because she was speaking in Gaelic…….but as this walk out happened before she spoke in ANY language, the most logical explanation is that this was an escalation of the Culture Wars………arguably started last week in Belfast’s City Hall, when Sinn Féin Mayor, Niall Ó Donnghaile could not bring himself to meet a young (British) Cadet Force member in a “Duke of Edinburgh Awards” Ceremony.

This has all been regarded as a “big mistake”. He has apologised. And he has got away with it……peculiarly because the DUP and other unionists did not go nuclear. Which was the option the baying mob outside the City Hall would have preferred. Even whe the great big Gaelic “Happy Christmas” sign was (rightly) passed thru Council, unionists huffed and puffed a bit but didnt actually DO anything.

Why not? Now, thats a very good question.

We cannot take Sinn Féins real or pretend Outreach in isolation. Because, Peter Robinson, the DUPs First Minister is also embarking on an outreach programme. He wants Catholics to support the union with Britain. Now even in the context of economic benefits thats been a hard sell for unionists as the national and emotional ties to the Republic of Ireland are just too strong. Robinson’s chosen route is dividing Catholic opinion on Education. (I wont go into detail here).

I dont think we can take Sinn Féin or DUP “outreach” in isolation………….and we must be in a political silly season to take either seriously. Let me emphasise that there is nothing……… in itself……… “sectarian” about Republicanism. Or unionism. And many genuine Republicans and Unionists find it difficult to accept that the “other sort” dont see this as clearly as they do. To a certain extent most people…..certainly those on the vol au vent circuit in the Long Gallery at Stormont have accepted the good faith…..or suspended judgement …..on the meeting and greeting by SF and DUP Ministers in the Executive. So perhaps its inevitable that they get into a bubble where they think they are more acceptable to “themmuns” than they actually are. But its still an unusual coincidence that the great new buzzword is “outreach”…………for both the DUP and SF. It has been argued that the DUP “outreach” is more about appearing acceptable to “moderate unionism”…….giving the bedrock voters of UUP a reason or fig leaf to get on board with DUP without holding their noses. And surely thats what SF “outreach” is about also….giving hard core SDLP voters a reason to get on board. And I think there is a genuine attempt by politicians (probably including Martina Anderson) to give their own personal histories a new narrative. I have moved on from where I was in the early 1970s. The narrative of my political life is not exactly a straight line

Of course SDLP and UUP continue an electoral downward spiral. Although it might be reasonable to say that SF and DUP  might have to work harder than they have done so far……as the 2011 crop of SDLP and UUP voters might well be a hard core. But the rhetoric of “outreach” doesnt quite square with other attitudes in DUP-SF……..the seeming isolation of UUP and SDLP Ministers, the tendency of DUP-SF to behave like a two party coalition rather than a five-party coalition.

Issues such as…..boundary changes…….centenary commemorations……local council re-organisation……. even the attempts to postpone the 2015 Assembly Election from 2015 to 2016 (a volatile year potentially as it marks the Centenary of the Easter Rising) are all designed to strengthen the DUP-SF grip on local politics. It would appear that the Big Two are not so much interested in outreach than advancing their own positions.

Theres two aspects…….the Outreach itself……..needs to be matched by a willingness to be approached ……….and this is variable. A sort of pragmatic attitude that Michelle O’Neill (Sinn Féin) is Minister for Agriculture and that Edwin Poots (DUP) is Minister for Health. But it stretches things to think that Protestant farmers and Catholic social workers in the Long Gallery vol-au-vent events actually feel great about that. Perhaps the pragmatic politeness has led the people in the Sinn Féin and DUP back-rooms to mis-read this as a thawing of relations. Game Changers. Hardly. Undoubtedly there IS a reservoir of “good will” to be tapped into……….and there will be many in the Golden Circle of quango-istas and potential quango-istas who would love a good excuse to “hug an ex-prisoner” or “cuddle up to a fundamentalist” and Outreach seems to be the key to their hearts. The surprising……or maybe it isnt surprising……is that journalists……..shrewd observers of these things seem to be blind to it……….rather like they went along with things 1994-1998.

The question has to be……..who gains from this fake Outreach? Why have journalists given Robinson an easy ride?

Well……..while SF and DUP take the lions share of votes of two communities they lack the approval/good will…….”love” of Official Norn Iron, the business men, trade unionists, academics, accountants, solicitors,journalists, doctors……..the influential chunk of opinion centred on South Belfast whose denizens sign up to Platform for Change petitions demanding “change” from politicians to facilitate their involvement. These are natural wannabee members of Quangos (semi-state bodies with members appointed by Government)It is  a declining market becuase of cuts to budgets but wannabee Quangoistas need a fig leaf or a reason to start conferring their blessing on DUP & SF.

Likewise the DUP and SF need the blessing of that influential community. Lets face it DUP and SF are brimming with political fixers and “cute hoors” but theres not many intellectual heavyweights around in those parties.

The answer……..Outreach. And it doesnt even have to be genuine. Unfortunately the “mobs” dont get this. Press the right buttons and the real Sinn Féin emerges. Press the right buttons and the real DUP emerges.