I am posting this letter on my website, but I do not expect they will read it, but perhaps someone who thinks it is valid might draw their attention to it. I write, not as a politician, or a political analyst, but merely someone who has spent more than 60 years as an adult in this Province. Like many I am peeved at the way the silent majority of the Unionists are currently represented by only one unionist, and that in local elections the choice is an amalgam, a party that has not the same affiliations as the old Unionist party had, and thus also a watered down version of the original pool of pure Unionists Up until 1969 the Unionist party represented the majority of people in the north of Ireland, only a few of whom were of a virulent nature. I believe, that apart from those on both sides of the divide who felt they had a cause to fight, the rest of all persuasions rubbed along reasonably harmoniously. We all know, have experienced, and indeed many of us suffered from the mindless violence of the following 40 years which has got us nowhere, but with a very ambivalent Stormont. There is almost total apathy, which is easily understandable, when those responsible for our welfare are busy fighting their own corners rather than being statesman. The way the British government, time and time again gave us the impression that they wanted rid of us as an unpleasant drain on the Exchequer, forgot that in those years before the troubles we were actually contributing to the British economy which then was of course the United Kingdom economy.
The apathy is easily understandable when one watches on TV, the playacting of the characters in the Stormont farce, behaving in the way that they consider it appropriate to a parliament, and later in the day at news time, one sees them screeching at one another in the entrance hall of Stormont when a fluffy microphone is shoved in their face. It therefore becomes difficult to take them seriously, and not consider that their own egos are more important than both decorum and quality politics, that moves things on rather than allows them to stagnate to a point where nothing is done. Before ’69 we had politicians who knew their job, weren’t made fun of as the ‘Chuckled Buddies’, something which demeans the whole of the assembly. They conducted their affairs either in Westminster or behind closed doors, but not continuously running to knock on the door of number 10. This practice alone shows a lack of statesmanship. Many of the more experienced politicians are still alive, some influencing from the background on both sides of the divide. Surely they along with some other influential people in the Province can steady the ship, give us people we can respect to vote for, whom we know will do the job properly.
>From the last election it was evident that the amalgamation of the Unionist party with the Conservative party was more to the advantage of the latter, while at the same time totally negating the pure Unionist vote. It would appear that people are dissatisfied, to a considerable extent, with the conduct of the DUP, and perhaps these two facts open a door to a more substantial and worthily Unionist party in time for the next election.