Unionist parties have failed their supporters
YOUR continuing impartial coverage of politics in the north of this island, the wonderfully varied perspectives of your many different contributors and the thoughtful intervention of Patrick Kielty (“‘The EU is not responsible for your blundering lack of foresight’ — Kielty slams Johnson’s Brexit plan”, News, Sept 29) prompt a much-needed rethink of politics within the unionist community.
Some 20 months ago, Sinn Fein seized the political initiative when Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness signalled that the power-sharing arrangements were not working for the nationalist community.
With no presence in the Executive, the DUP were on the back foot until Theresa May offered them a lifeline (and a dubious £1bn) in a Trump-like deal to support her minority government.
Since then, Northern Ireland has ceased to be the focus of DUP interest, with Westminster, instead, being seen as the place to exert maximum leverage to pursue party political goals, even if they are not what people back home wish for.
The party spent some £425,000 in London, promoting a Brexit vote among the citizenry of London (who overwhelmingly chose to remain in the EU) and then 55.8% of the Northern Irish electorate also chose to remain. So, the DUP appears to be increasingly out of step with the electorate.
The NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) is already structuring questions for the 2021 UKwide census, recognising that there will not be a clear majority of respondents who identify as Protestants for the first time in Northern Irish political history.
To this fascinating mix is added the shameful behaviour of Ian Paisley MP, with his suspension from parliament for lobbying the Government not to support a UN resolution investigating human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, after its government had paid for two luxury holidays for his family there.
The stunning incompetence of former First Minister Arlene Foster and seemingly everyone else in the DUP connected to the RHI scheme further confirms the ineptitude of the party and the vacuum that that creates within Northern Irish politics.
The DUP has lost whatever moral authority it may have had, the UUP is yesterday’s man, and Jim Allister is the TUV’s only man, so the unionist community really has nowhere to turn to.
Looking backward nostalgically to the Protestant Ascendancy is not a political strategy, and the north desperately needs a political party that can help focus minds on quality-of-life issues, such as health, education, transport and human rights and equality for all.
The continuing refusal of most political parties in the Republic and Great Britain to engage meaningfully in Northern Irish politics is unhelpful. It boosts sectarian sentiments and it encourages the continuation of the apolitical politics in which Trump, Brexit and narrow-minded nationalisms can thrive.
OBSERVER Ballymena, Co Antrim