Give Dodds his marching orders!

By Carál Ní Chuilín
I worry that some day while shopping, the staff of Tescos are going to ask me not to come back due to the traffic jams in the isles that I cause! The hold-ups are because neighbours stop to voice their views and opinions on the latest hot issue. What was unusual this week was that I was spending time defending the SDLP.
“Sinn Féin defending the SDLP?” you might ask.
Well, the party has at last come on board with the rest of the nationalist community and reversed its unpopular decision to block temporary changing facilities for the Cricky Pitch on the Cliftonville Road and one should always give credit where credit is due.
Sinn Féin and the SDLP also work well together in the Assembly and in committees for the good of our constituents. It would, of course, be progress if we could also agree to maximise nationalist representation but unfortunately on every occasion in the past when Sinn Féin broached the subject of a voter pact the SDLP rebuffed the offer.
Here, in North Belfast, both the nationalist and the unionist community have been failed by Nigel Dodds. Westminster represents little more than a gravy train for the DUP – as their expenses scandals have explicitly shown.
For 125 years unionism has dominated in North Belfast – always to the detriment of the nationalist people. We not only have had sectarian marches imposed on us but the DUP have used their status to block every aspect of equality, especially in relation to leisure provision and house building programmes aimed at tackling cronic need.
Fortunately, we now have a historic opportunity to dump Dodds and unseat the DUP.
How can this be done?
By tactical voting, like that in Mid-Ulster when SDLP supporters voted for Martin McGuinness and rid themselves of Willie McCrea
I know from talking to people – not least those who stop me in Tescos! – that this is something the nationalist community, and SDLP supporters, would like to see happening.
We in Sinn Féin have done our best to make sure that every single person who is entitled to vote has been registered. Sinn Fein voters have also significantly narrowed the DUP’s lead in North Belfast so much that the seat is now within grasp.
Provided.
Provided that we can persuade a section of SDLP supporters to vote tactically at Westminster whilst continuing to vote for the SDLP candidates of their choice in council and assembly elections.
It is as simple as that!
That is the formula for success, that is the way to make the historic breakthrough on equality for the whole community in May’s Westminster election.
Go for it!