Speech by Eddie McGrady MP to SDLP Conference 2010  

The Mournes and South Down have been a welcoming place for the SDLP, over the many years of the party's evolution and growth.   Over these years we have witnessed many changes, most of these for the good, which in no small part was due to the work the SDLP.   However, in recent weeks and months we have witnessed the disintegration of the democratic process, a process that we, in the SDLP, sacrificed so much to achieve.   In recent times Sinn Fein and the DUP have abused the structures of devolution, which were intended to be evolutionary and lead to a true equality for the people of Northern Ireland.   This degeneration of the political process has lead Unionists to the old game of the crude sectarian headcount.   As someone who remembers all too vividly the bad old days of sectarian rule and segregated politics in Northern Ireland, I can say without exaggeration, that unless...