The SDLP is wasting its time as Stormont’s opposition. An odd sentiment from this column, you say, since it was the first to suggest that the party should leave the Executive several years ago and then criticised it for making the move too late.

Your sentiment is valid, but two developments have neutralised the SDLP’s role in the meantime. The first is that Stormont is now so unpopular that even its opposition cannot raise a cheer among a disillusioned public.

The Assembly is largely irrelevant in the real world. So while the SDLP offers sensible and rational arguments in opposition, it makes no difference to hospital waiting lists, for example.

The second development is that the SDLP has shrunk so much that it is not really a parliamentary opposition. Opposition parties oppose government policies and promise that when they win the next election, they will do things differently.

A tale of two new year messages - and one load of claptrap

Stormont is not working and the SDLP needs to stop going it alone

The SDLP will not win the next election. A recent University of Liverpool report puts support for it at just over 9%, ranking it sixth in the electorate’s party preferences.

So what Stormont urgently requires is a........

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