[2] He joined the Ulster Unionist Party, and was elected to Donaghadee Urban District Council in 1952, serving as chairman from 1955 until 1964.
[1][4][5] Soon after his election, he made headlines by accusing the management of the Harland and Wolff shipyard of introducing "capital punishment" by sacking 2,000 men during a strike.
When in October 1968 students linked to the socialist group People's Democracy organised a sit-in, Long joined them but asked them to go home.
[6] Two weeks after his appointment, People's Democracy activists launched their Belfast-to-Derry march, calling for electoral and legal reform, action to reduce unemployment and to provide decent homes.
He was appointed to a four-person cabinet Security Committee which, in April, decided to request British troops to maintain order.
He attended the funerals of some members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and British Army who were killed in The Troubles, and placed more welfare officers in inner city schools after claiming that riots were poisoning children's minds.
When British Prime Minister Edward Heath imposed direct rule, Long protested that this was merely a political gambit, in exchange for Labour Party leader Harold Wilson softening his party's opposition to Britain joining the Common Market.
[1] He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1985 New Year Honours,[7] and retired in 1987, soon moving to North Yorkshire.