IN an interview Peter Hain correctly stated that good leadership sometimes involves telling one's followers truths they might rather not hear. He was speaking in reference to Ian Paisley but he could equally have been directing his remarks to the present DUP leadership. Peter Robinson lacks the courage to stand up to hard-liners like Dodds and McCausland as evidenced by his doing a U-turn on the Maze agreement and putting his signature to the infamous letter condemning the Parades Commission. This is why Robinson's leadership will go down as a failure, where, surprisingly, Paisley's may not, despite his outpourings of sectarian bile and bigotry over so many decades.
K McDONALD
Belfast BT15
