A Good Evening Ulster report from Warrenpoint during the
election campaign resulting from the mass resignation of Unionist MPs in
protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement. The constituency of South Down is one of
the more vulnerable Ulster Unionist seats to be contested and could be
described as a marginal, having been won by a little over 500 votes at the 1983
General Election. The resigning MP facing re-election is Enoch Powell, an
ex-Conservative government cabinet minister once tipped as a future prime minister,
who left England to stand for election in Northern Ireland following widespread
outrage at his views on immigration.
There is a Unionist
pact in the constituency to only stand one candidate so as not to split the
vote, but there is to be no equivalent within nationalism: the SDLP refuses to
enter into any agreement, with Sinn Fein while the latter continues to advocate
violence. The three main candidates - Powell, the SDLP's Eddie McGrady and
Frank McDowell of Sinn Fein - are all interviewed, as is Sean Magee of the
Workers' Party. There are also shots of canvassing on the local doorsteps.