If the Ulster Unionist Party and SDLP are to stand any chance of regaining the pole positions within unionism and nationalism, they need to get their acts together, writes David Adams.
Having spent decades in pursuit of their newly won top-dog status, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin won't easily be shifted.
Of course, it isn't fair that Sinn Féin has overtaken the SDLP when the party, and in particular its former leader, John Hume, gave so much to the peace process. Nor did the DUP deserve to outpoll the Ulster Unionists after spending years feeding off a process they contributed so very little to.
But in politics fairness has got nothing to do with it. Self-pity is ultimately self-defeating. They need to accept the situation and just get on with the job in hand.
The kind of walkout stunt the UUP pulled off the other day certainly won't help. Rather than seeking to mimic the DUP, the Ulster Unionists should be ensuring there is a discernible distance between themselves and their more right-wing opponents.
It was they who insisted on the establishment of an independent commission to monitor the ceasefires; it seems strange that they aren't now content to leave any judgment on the Kelly's Cellars incident to that body.
The Ulster Unionist Party didn't lose votes in the last election because of its support for the Belfast Agreement, but rather because the electorate didn't have a clue where the party actually stood on the agreement, or on much else for that matter.
To say the UUP was sending out mixed messages would be a gross understatement. It went into the election looking and sounding like a party in complete disarray. No one was quite sure whether the centre of gravity lay with David Trimble, Jeffrey Donaldson or somewhere in between.
Consequently, a large section of moderate unionism simply stayed at home and didn't bother to vote. (And who could blame them?)
Donaldson defecting to the DUP and taking most of his supporters with him has alleviated that problem somewhat, but not entirely. The MP for South Antrim, David Burnside, has taken on the Donaldson role by publicly calling for David Trimble to resign as leader.
While Burnside has neither the support base nor standing of Donaldson inside or outside the party, he still has potential to cause problems and keep divisions alive.
He is one of those who have been urging the UUP to return to its "traditional unionist values".
Which is simply another way of saying that the party should move further to the right. Such a move would be disastrous for the Ulster Unionists.
Not only would those non-voting moderate unionists continue sitting at home during elections, but in all probability many others would join them.
It isn't even as though there is a deep well of potential support on the right just waiting for the UUP to move in their direction.
No one on the right wing of the unionist electorate is going to vote for the Ulster Unionists in preference to the DUP.
In order to hold on to its support base and attract middle-of-the-road unionism back to the polling booths, the party needs to be clearly advocating modern and moderate unionism.
If the SDLP is to prosper again it should be looking to its origins and reminding itself what the party is supposed to be about.
With the Belfast Agreement encapsulating so much of what John Hume had been advocating for decades, it was as though they decided that everything they stood for had been achieved, and somehow politics was now at an end.
If that indeed is the attitude, then, for them at least, politics could well be at an end.
As nationalists, the SDLP should be considering how best to advance their notion of an agreed, 32-county Ireland. If they genuinely believe that our best interests lie in some form of voluntary unitary state, then they should follow the logic of that position and start trying to convince the rest of us.
They should be looking to move far beyond the sound bites and slogans of Sinn Féin by putting together comprehensive proposals outlining their ideas on how a united Ireland could be brought about and how, in practical terms, they imagine it might work.
Surely they envisage something other than a simple tacking-on of the six northern counties to the Republic. Presuming that is indeed the case, then what form of agreed Ireland do they actually foresee?
How would former unionists be accommodated and protected within the SDLP's unitary state?
What would be the economic implications for both North and South of such a development? How would the British connection be protected and maintained?
The SDLP should grab the initiative from Sinn Féin and show itself, once again, to be a party with a well-thought-out vision for the future. If the UUP and the SDLP can regroup, reorganise and repackage themselves, then a period in the political wilderness might just turn out to have been a blessing, albeit a heavily disguised one.