How different would NI politics be if there were a few pubs around Stormont?

The SDLP has proposed relocating the Northern Ireland Assembly from the Stormont Estate in suburban east Belfast to a new or repurposed site in the city centre.

Parliament Buildings, the neoclassical edifice everyone refers to as Stormont, would be leased or partially sold to fund the move.

The SDLP made a similar proposal at the time of the Belfast Agreement, winning Sinn Féin’s support, but this was swiftly dismissed as a pointless expense. The party has resurrected the idea as part of a package of reform proposals launched on Tuesday, focused on long-overdue improvements to powersharing.

Linking relocation to reform is a clever way to generate interest in a topic that is otherwise rather dry. There is no chance of the Assembly moving, but nobody can resist talking about it.

The SDLP argues a “more appropriate and more accessible” site would “bring democratic decision-making closer to the people”. Matthew O’Toole, the party’s Assembly leader, said Stormont “is detached in its location and is poorly served by public transport. It also has an air of grandeur and pomposity that’s out of place in the modern Northern Ireland.”

Speaking to The Irish News, O’Toole added the proposal “has nothing to do with Stormont’s historical associations”.

Not everyone will agree. Relocation generates interest partly because of its subtext of downgrading a defining symbol of unionism. However, nationalism made its peace with Stormont a generation ago and now commands the Assembly’s largest party.

The SDLP is fifth largest, too small to qualify for the Executive. It faces a nail-biting election next May, when any Sinn Féin bounce from the Drumcree dispute could come at its expense. Proposing relocation looks like a desperate bid for attention.

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Although the public may feel increasingly alienated from devolved Government, there is no evidence this is due to location or architecture. On the contrary, Stormont’s grandeur has a visibly reassuring impact on visitors whose faith in Northern Ireland politics is being tested.

Parking and public transport could be improved, at a fraction of the cost of relocation, but physical access is of debatable value in an online age. Four years ago, the Northern Ireland Office relocated from the former speaker’s house at Stormont to a city centre office block, partly to improve accessibility. This has facilitated protests by the small group of Belfast citizens who wave placards as a hobby. They routinely block a pavement in the shopping district while inconveniencing staff and deterring visitors. A city centre Assembly would be permanently besieged by the permanently outraged.

The Executive is based close to Parliament Buildings at Stormont Castle, a Victorian Scottish baronial manor house and the original seat of the 400-acre Stormont estate.

On the opposite side of the city sits a strikingly similar property, the council-owned Belfast Castle. It is no easier to reach by private or public transport, yet it is a much-loved and visited attraction. Perhaps all Stormont needs is better marketing.

Despite all this, the SDLP has raised a real issue, albeit not much of an issue for the public. Stormont’s location is a problem for politicians, party staff, officials, lobbyists, journalists and everyone else who constitutes a “political village”. They have no equivalent of Kildare Street in Dublin or the pubs and clubs around Westminster to socialise and conduct informal business. The only nearby venue is a hotel at the end of the estate’s mile-long processional drive, and even that is about to become a retirement home.

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The lack of a Stormont village is felt across the political spectrum. Responding on social media to the SDLP proposal, former DUP and UUP staff agreed Stormont was built in the wrong place, although moving is out of the question.

It is intriguing to speculate how different Northern Ireland politics might be if an after-work drinking culture had ever been an option on Stormont’s doorstep. Perhaps it would be even worse.

Every country that has built a new capital or created a grand government district has faced the same problem of sterile surrounds, but political villages will always find ways to come together where national issues – and budgets – are involved. Also, national governments rarely collapse for years at a time. Stormont is highly unusual as a large devolved government district on the edge of a provincial city. No ecosystem of private venues can thrive around it, certainly based on its business alone.

Stormont could still reduce its physical isolation, and earn a significant windfall, by opening up the estate to development. About a third is mature forest but most of the rest is open land that would be attractive for housing. More residents could support more businesses.

Alas, it is difficult to build houses or open bars in Belfast due to overloaded sewers and antiquated liquor licensing laws. Rather than a move, Stormont mostly needs to get a move on.