Bar SF from Westminster polls

They are standing for election again and again, as a protest against a parliament which they hate and in the process not giving a voice in that parliament to the people who voted for them.

The situation is absurd and must not be allowed to go on.

They are lobbying the electorate for votes and will never use them, when other candidates could avail of such votes who will attend and give a voice.

Sinn Féin cannot say with any certainty that everyone who voted for them are okay with the idea of a so-called non-attendance protest vote.

Many of who voted for them may have voted on manifestos such as day to day bread and butter issues and not the old politics of bringing down the British by wearing them down and throwing a spanner in the works. Many people have serious issues in their lives and that of their children and want representation, not token members of parliament whose intention is to show contempt.

Emergency laws should be brought in urgently which automatically hold bye-elections for members of parliament who are permanently absent from the Commons and specifically where it is understood that elected members will not take their seats.

Sinn Féin should be required to sign a ‘notice of intention’ either to take up a seat in an election that they are running in or not. Their seats should then be vacated and they should be automatically precluded from running in subsequent by-elections and subsequent next general election.

In the mean time, all privileges howsoever arising should be revoked from their recent non-attending election to Westminster.

Sinn Féin should enjoy no benefits whatsoever from their election for the simple reason they will not participate to the slightest degree in an institution which they were elected. Sinn Féin are undoubtedly a party of protest who are doing everything they can to thwart democracy with their usual attitude of negativity and hypocrisy.

Significant amounts of money are being spent by taxpayers putting useless members of parliament on the ballot paper for votes which have no bearing on government policy.

Sinn Féin should also be billed for all expenses incurred in putting them on the ballot paper and registering them as members of parliament, who will not act as members of parliament.

It should be remembered that Sinn Féin also brought down the Northern Ireland Executive by failing to attend and their failure to take their seats in Westminster is an attempt to upset things as much as possible and show contempt for the British.

The carry-on of Sinn Féin not taking up their seats in Westminster has gone on long enough and it is time to put a sudden and permanent stop to it.

The situation in Northern Ireland regarding their non-participation in the Executive should also be legislated against.

All privileges and payments should be revoked immediately to bring sterility and the nonsense politics of non-participation and contempt to an end.

Maurice Fitzgerald, Shanbally, Co Cork