Why is Jeffrey Donaldson being allowed to hold devolved government to ransom – almost at will? Since last September the so-called leader of the most negative party in British and six county politics has threatened to collapse the devolved institutions if he and his cronies do not get their own way.
At first he threatened the collapse of the institutions if the NI protocol was not repealed. This was an integral part of Brexit, an international agreement, which he and his party voted for only a year ago. Now, more recently, he has again threatened the institutions if the British government passes the languages and culture act, again something he and his party signed up to in the New Decade, New Approach deal. So, it would seem that the DUP is no more to be trusted in fulfilling its promises than the current teller of untruths who at this moment is the prime minister of Britain.
We are in the midst of a lethal pandemic, elections to the Assembly are only a few short months away and we have Jeffrey behaving like a spoilt child that didn’t get its own way at the party. What does this say about his ability or maturity to be the leader of the largest unionist party in the assembly? It would appear that he and his collection of naysayers won’t implement measures they have previously supported.
Decisions on the protocol and the languages and culture acts will be made at Westminster, so why doesn’t Jeffrey threaten to withdraw the DUP MPs from this body? Collapsing Stormont will have no impact whatsoever on these issues and will simply place the health and lives of the people here in the hands of Boris Johnson.
It would appear that Jeffrey and his band of individuals are devoid of any forward thinking skills and pursue only negative solutions to situations that they have been instrumental in creating. They must be consigned to the past and hopefully politics here in the north will find itself in a more acceptable and positive place. Unionism in general would benefit from such a move and young working-class Protestants would hopefully find a party which would truly care for them and would work for their betterment.
The current bunch of DUP elected representatives should hang their heads in shame, but they won’t, at the total absence of any level of representation they have shown to these young people.
Their education has suffered, their job prospects have suffered and their chances of a reasonable standard of living have all but disappeared. Most of this is clearly down to the negative policies of the DUP, which has forgotten to care for those most in need in their own community.
SEAN SEELEY
Craigavon, Co Armagh
Nuclear energy for Derry and Belfast?
Will Derry and Belfast by the late twenties have small nuclear energy stations? We are not talking here of the giant nuclear power stations across the water or the one being built in Somerset, England covering 10 football fields. We are talking about the new small nuclear energy plants developed by Rolls-Royce. They are only a tenth of the size and RR is pouring near £500m into their development. Sixteen ‘mighty minis’ are planned for England.
Each mini RR nuclear energy plant can power one million homes. So two for Northern Ireland would do the job.
Northern Ireland already uses nuclear-generated electricity. Electricity is pumped undersea from Scotland to Moyle, Co Antrim by the Moyle Interconnector. So some of this electricity will be Scottish nuclear power generated on Scottish soil. A fact those in Northern Ireland who oppose nuclear energy plants on Northern Ireland soil must put into their pipe and smoke – and Northern Ireland holiday homeowners in Donegal will be using French nuclear energy. The new undersea Celtic Connector links France to the Cork coast. France generates 70 per cent of its power from nuclear.
RR’s world-class nuclear energy scientists are confident of strong demand worldwide for their mighty mini nuclear energy stations. Even the Republic might buy one by repealing prohibition of nuclear energy generation on Irish soil.
Importing nuclear energy from French soil – enough to power half a million homes – to the 26 counties has undermined this prohibition position.
It seems therefore, north and south, a coach and four is driving through the ‘no nuclear energy stations on our soil’ argument.
So, in the May elections I will be asking Foyle constituency candidates what’s their vision for Derry and Belfast, becoming part of the fast emerging new mighty mini nuclear energy age?
TOM BRADLEY
Derry City
Another day, another atrocity
LAST Wednesday morning 3am 300 Israeli police surrounded the home of a Palestinian family of 15 and proceeded to demolish it with bulldozers, casting the family onto the street with temperatures below zero and in freezing rain. The Salihiya family had lived there since the 1950s.
The police had attempted to carry out the destruction last Monday but withdrew due to the presence of journalists and European diplomats but in the early hours of Wednesday, they were able to proceed without these witnesses to their nefarious actions.
This area of East Jerusalem known as Sheikh Jarrah, illegally occupied by Israel, is populated by Palestinians driven from their homes in 1948 in what became known as The Nakba or disaster and has been routinely neglected by the municipal authority, with overcrowded schools and rubbish piled up in the streets. Small groups of right-wing Zionist zealots have taken up residence in the homes of evicted Palestinians and are instrumental in the continued ethnic cleansing of this part of the city.
Another day, another atrocity
EUGENE F PARTE
Belfast BT9
Stunning claim not well founded
Killian McNicholl’s belief (January 17) that an invasion of Northern Ireland by the Irish army in the summer of 1969 would have resulted in “that big an incident that the United Nations would have had no choice but to have come in” is not well-founded.
In the event of such an invasion, intervention by Nato rather than the UN would have occurred as the United Kingdom government would have invoked Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty – the section which obliges all members to come to the aid of any country in the organisation which has been attacked. The result would have been that the Republic would have found itself under attack from troops from North America and Europe.
Perhaps it was the realisation that Nato would become involved rather than pressure from British intelligence (as Mr McNicholl suggests ) which persuaded Dublin that an invasion should not be launched.
C ARMSTRONG
Belfast BT1
