Two main unionist parties have done nothing to arrest Protestant decline

Yes, it's election time again, and once more the Protestant community, like spring lambs, is expected to turn out and vote, not to put people in, but keep people out.
By The Newsroom
Published 19th Apr 2016, 15:41 BST
Updated 19th Apr 2016, 16:45 BST
The Protestant community is expected to turn out and vote, not to put people into Stormont, but keep people outThe Protestant community is expected to turn out and vote, not to put people into Stormont, but keep people out
The Protestant community is expected to turn out and vote, not to put people into Stormont, but keep people out

Our community will continue to deteriorate, and never shake off its inertia and move forward, while it shelters under the debilitating influence of that mindset.

If we as a people are to survive, we have to summon up the resolve to dig deep and find the answer within ourselves to restore some measure of dignity and self-respect – filling Stormont with “corpses” is only a short-term fix, they’ll just stiffen.

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The greatest danger to our community is to play safe and vote for more of the same. We have a choice - to stick or twist. To continue with what we have and sow the seeds of stagnation until we expire, or risk change that will restore some quality of life.

Stepping out from the ever lengthening shadows of the two main unionist parties will take an act of courage and a leap of faith, and make no mistake it will be painful, but there is no easy option.

We used to trust the DUP but they have betrayed our trust. They have set out their stall to attract the middle-class vote, and this influences almost every decision they make. We saw how they dropped the flag protestors and pastor McConnell when things got messy, their ambivalence on issues like gay rights, when interviewed they wriggle on their seats like someone with a severe attack of piles.

These people are cuckoos who have laid their eggs in the DUP nest. They are no longer the working-class Protestant party, but still project that image because of its appeal at the polls. By the way anyone out there who believes the UUP would be an improvement still believes in the tooth fairy.

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Our Protestant communities are haemorrhaging and in their death throes. The two main parties have done nothing to arrest this decline, bind up our wounds and begin a healing process. At this most crucial time in our history, lacking vision, they are out of their depth and handing out sponges to soak up water on a sinking ship.

The DUP in the past was rough round the edges – but it was honest!

That seems to have been smoothed down and covered with a very thin veneer of polish – God help us. That’s not an expletive, it’s a prayer, a cry wrung from the heart of a community weeping for the soul it has lost.

C Maxwell, Portadown

Related topics:DUPProtestantPortadownUUP