The UK is coming to see the reality of the DUP

The DUP has its origins in Ian Paisley's '˜Protestant Unionist Party' and it has not strayed far from those roots demonstrated in most of its newly elected MPs being Christian fundamentalists, three of them being members of the Free Presbyterian Church founded by Mr Paisley.

Many ordinary members of the party are creationists who deny the scientific evidence for evolution and some of its leading lights are global warming deniers.

Seven of the ten elected to Westminster are members of the Orange Order which makes up 2% of our population.

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The longest serving of its MPs, Jeffrey Donaldson, declares Enoch Powell to be one of his ‘heroes’.

Some of its MPs have been accused in the past year of having racist attitudes: towards ‘ethnics’ in Mr Wilson’s case and ‘gypsies’ in Paul Girvan’s case.

During this election and the previous Stormont election the party was endorsed by the LCC, the loyalist paramilitary umbrella group.

It’s patently evident that the Democratic Unionist Party does not mirror who we are as citizens in Northern Ireland, not even those of us who come from the ‘Protestant tradition’ but they were elected with all their peculiarities because they were perceived to be the most effective cultural defenders of unionism and the union.

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They are the contrary, as will become increasingly evident as the UK public watch transfixed.

Jon Snow of Channel 4 News said they’re ‘One of the most extreme political entities in the British Isles’ and one female caller to London’s Radio LBC asked, ‘Are these people British?’

God help us.

Wes Mackey Holmes, Belfast BT14

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