So, the DUP’s most vociferous critic of the Northern Ireland protocol, Edwin Poots, has now been discovered to have been campaigning for parts of the protocol aimed at the farming community to be kept in place. This would mean farmers here being treated differently from farmers in the rest of the UK – which the DUP claim to be totally opposed to – except, it would seem, when it suits them.
For months now the democratically elected local institutions have not functioned as the DUP have kept them collapsed, falsely claiming that the protocol is endangering the north’s position in the UK. The DUP have argued that the protocol means that these six counties will be treated differently regarding economic trading between the north and the rest of the UK. Mr Poots, however, doesn’t seem to mind this being the case when it enables him to improve conditions for farmers here to the detriment of farmers in the other parts of the union.
While improving conditions for our farmers is to be applauded, this move reeks of double standards on the part of Poots, who has been at the front of the DUP’s challenge to the protocol and has publicly called for it to be scrapped. Now it would appear that this arch opponent of the protocol is really an advocate of the agreement when it suits.
It raises the fundamental question as to why the DUP is using its opposition to the protocol as their reason for boycotting the institutions and effectively mothballing them, especially at a time when local government has never been more needed. We are suffering from an economic recession which is worsening daily, leaving many unable to adequately feed their children and struggling to properly heat their homes. Our NHS is endangered, and failing to cope with the ever increasing demands on its services. Our schools cannot afford to properly fund the education of our children, and we are facing strikes and threats of industrial action from several different corners.
Still, the DUP arrogantly sit on their hands, preach that they are holding the high ground, taking the principled stance, and protecting the north from a non-existent threat. For thousands of families Christmas will be agony and pain, and the DUP continue to do nothing. The DUP say they will never accept the protocol, they say it fractures the union, they claim it is an economic disaster for the six counties, and when it suits them they work it for their own purposes. This cannot be tolerated, it must be called out and exposed at all levels.
SEAN SEELEY
Craigavon, Co Armagh
Voting for Irish unity
Polls show Northern Ireland rejects Irish unity by a huge margin. Two simultaneous opinion polls conducted north and south of the border titled: Arins - Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South – a joint initiative of the Royal Irish Academy and the University of Notre Dame found Northern Ireland would vote decisively against a united Ireland if there was a border poll, while twice as many voters who expressed a preference want to remain in the United Kingdom the poll revealed. In line with a simultaneous and identical poll in the Republic of Ireland there is an overwhelming majority of more than four to one in favour of Irish unity. The twin polls, alongside accompanying focus groups, were conducted among 1,000 voters in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in August and September of 2022. Fifty per cent of Northern Ireland respondents indicated they would vote against Irish unity, which included 21 per cent of those emanating from a Catholic background. Twenty-six per cent in the north favoured a vote for unity, while 19 per cent said they were unaware how they would vote and five per cent said they would decline to vote. The highest percentage of don’t knows was among the ‘others’ – those not identified as being from a Catholic or Protestant background, where 31 per cent are undecided. Seventy-eight per cent of those from a Protestant background were opposed to Irish unity while, those from a Catholic background favoured Irish unity standing at 54 per cent. As public opinion is a vital part of the political process, 55 per cent of Northern Ireland voters favoured holding a referendum, in the next 10 years. However, a majority of ‘others’ were desirous of a referendum, with 51 per cent in favour, 24 per cent against and 25 per cent saying they don’t know. In a different polity, seven months of political dysfunction amid crumbling public health services and cost-of-living crisis that could trigger a voter revolt punishing culpable parties.
GERRY COUGHLAN
Dublin 24
Never fear to negotiate
PEACE and Neutrality Alliance called for a ceasefire and UN chaired negotiations from the very start of the war in Ukraine.
We therefore welcome the statement from President Biden that he would be willing to have talks with President Putin and so help reduce escalating tensions between these nuclear powers.
His remarks were made at a recent press conference in Washington DC during a bilateral summit with French president Emmanuel Macron. This is a major foreign policy change in the Biden administration now expressing the need for diplomacy to end this horrific war.
Let us encourage these moves and recall that President Kennedy in a speech on January 20, 1961, said: “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But never fear to negotiate” – a political perspective that helped solve the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962.
ROGER COLE
Peace and Neutrality Alliance,
Dalkey, Co Dublin
Bypass the fuel suppliers and pay direct
Never mind all this guff about special arrangements that need to be made in order to transform £600 for energy costs. We do not need to consider the differences between the way fuel suppliers operate in Northern Ireland compared to the UK. Bypass the fuel suppliers and pay directly. If the ‘Cost of Living’ payments were able to be made directly to accounts so can the £600.
GABRIELLE STEWART
Omagh, Co Tyrone
