Conference business: The SDLP will not allow the North's middle ground to be abandoned by the Irish and British governments, Mr Séamus Mallon has warned.
The outgoing Newry and Armagh MP told delegates that the party had a role in giving leadership not just to nationalists but to "good, decent unionists" too. These had been "ditched by the DUP" and even to an extent by the UUP leadership, he said.
"They will not ditched by decent nationalists." Mr Mallon criticised the two governments for having "put all their eggs in one basket" during last autumn's talks. Accusing Sinn Féin of having no real commitment to the principle of consent, he also regretted the attitude of the British prime minister, Mr Blair, towards the SDLP, which was summed up in the phrase: "Chaps, your problem is you don't have any guns."
But he warned that the party would never allow the governments to abandon the principle of parallel consent: "Tread softly, gentlemen, because we will not let you tread on that dream." He also pledged that the SDLP would prevent any abandonment of the Belfast Agreement.
"We're going to hold onto the core of the Good Friday agreement and let no government think otherwise," he said.
The MP for South Down, Mr Eddie McGrady, suggested that the latest party conference was a "watershed", following a period that had featured the sidelining of the SDLP and "a corruption of the democratic process that I don't want to see repeated".
Calling for the ending of paramilitarism, he complained that the North had already seen IRA structures "translated into Sinn Féin structures" as a means of "gaining insidious control of our cities".
Mr McGrady added: "We are entering on the one hand a green Mafia land, and on the other, an orange Mafia land." The next few months would decide whether this process could be stopped.
No sovereign state, British or Irish, could tolerate private armies and it was "not a generous move" by the IRA to offer "demobilisation", he said. "The Good Friday agreement eight years ago dictated that decommissioning should take place. Why are we rewarding people for doing what was right anyway?" The upcoming election was a chance for a "new beginning", Mr McGrady added.
He called on SDLP activists to "give people a moral message that we can give them good democracy, untainted by intimidation or criminality".
He said he accepted the need for inclusivity in the political process, but denied that this meant all parties had unfettered rights to involvement in government. "Give people a simple moral message," he told the conference.
"Offer them good government and good democracy without any taint of criminality." Mr McGrady also claimed the political process had been compromised by the IRA. He said inclusivity necessitated partnership, adding that "reasonable parameters" should be established for all parties.
"It may be that some aren't up to it," he said. "We will not be dictated to by the hardest-liner on the IRA army council." The party's policing spokesman, Mr Alex Attwood, called for the creation of a "truth commission" to aid reconciliation in Ireland. The apology by Mr Blair to Mr Gerry Conlon and other victims of miscarried justice could be a starting point for a "comprehensive truth process", and this should be the first item on the agenda when the two governments next meet.
Mr Attwood also told delegates he had a meeting the day before with "evangelical" Protestants, who said that because of the disarray within the UUP and the attitude of the DUP, the best hope for the political process lay in the hands of "the SDLP, the parties in the South, and the Irish Government".
Privately, some senior SDLP members were confident that movement on Mr Mark Durkan's call for the recalling of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation could take place before the expected May Westminster election.
There were also suggestions that the party's demand for the appointment of civic commissioners to take over the running of Stormont was being actively considered by Downing Street.
"It's one of a number of proposals on Blair's desk," said a party member.