Letter: The fears of a u-turn by the DUP are hardly unreasonable given its past actions

I read Phillip Brett's letter of (‘While TUV attacks other unionists, the DUP will not be deflected from our mandate to protect the Union,’ April 20, see link below) with interest. In it he attacks Stuart McEvoy of the TUV for suggesting that the DUP might be laying the groundwork for a return to Stormont under the Windsor Framework. Considering his party have in the past, elected a Sinn Fein speaker, acquiesced to an Irish language bill, and indeed were operating the NI Protocol prior to the last Assembly elections, his fears of a DUP U-turn are hardly unreasonable.

True, the DUP have 'held the line' so far on the Windsor Proposals, but a realist would recognise that the fact that the TUV garnered 65,000 odd votes in the last Assembly election made them realise that another u-turn would probably spell their electoral destruction. The DUP's current strong stance is to be welcomed, but on the evidence of past u-turns one must ask, is this a result of an infusion of principle, or rather a tactic to ensure the survival of the party until such times as the TUV threat is neutralised?

One thing is certain, if the TUV vote drops significantly, the DUP could reason it is electorally safe to re-enter an executive. They could of course, stick to principle and refuse, but the precedents of an SF speaker and Irish Language Act do not inspire confidence.

Tom Ferguson, Ballymoney

Philip Brett: While TUV attacks other unionists, the DUP will not be deflected from our mandate to protect the Union