Letter: The Framework is going to be implemented regardless of what unionists think, so DUP should bite the bullet and go back to Stormont

In response to many letters criticising the recently agreed Windsor Framework, I would like to provide some context for the future of the Union if the current Stormont boycott continues:

1. This Framework is going to be implemented whether unionists like it or not. The Great Britain public and most UK parliamentarians have more pressing matters to deal with and consider the matter resolved;

2. If the DUP continue to keep the Good Friday Agreement institutions down and power sharing cannot be restored then either there will be a re-negotiation of the agreement to ensure that no one party can collapse the executive; or the government will bring in a far more extensive and worse iteration of the 1985 Anglo Irish Agreement sharing power in all but name with the Republic in the Governance of Northern Ireland

3. The UK government and possibly people on the mainland will consider the province ungovernable and unionists totally intransigent. This does not bode well for the Union.

4. Unionists have far less power and seats than in 1985 but even then their constant and vocal protests against the AIA were ignored for 13 years. Do we really want Maryfield Mark 2 with Irish civil servants and ministers in place in our province, perhaps this time with far greater influence amounting to virtual joint rule?

I think it is time to bite the bullet and go back to Stormont and try to achieve further improvements to the protocol/Windsor Agreement over time.

Frank McClintock, Belfast BT4