I urge Doug Beattie not to make the same mistake about the SDLP as Mike Nesbitt

A letter from Tom Nash:
Letter to the editorLetter to the editor
Letter to the editor

From 2012 to 2017 military and police veterans in the Lagan Valley constituency and the wider Northern Ireland area were exceptionally well served by Mrs Brenda Hale DUP MLA.

As a war widow she was highly respected both inside and outside Northern Ireland.

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She was a strident lobbyist for veterans, families and war widows, she used her contacts in Westminster to ensure that veterans had a voice.

In short, she was a brilliant ambassador for those who served.

Just before the 2017 Stormont election, Mike Nesbitt, the UUP MLA, exhorted the electorate to transfer their votes to anyone but the DUP, he was especially keen to see transfers to the SDLP and Alliance.

His bizarre, petty action resulted in Mrs Brenda Hale losing her seat and Alliance and the SDLP gaining several seats through his intervention.

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In Lagan Valley instead of having Mrs Hale rooting for them, veterans got an SDLP MLA, who seems to me to be fixated with ‘Flags’, and as far as I am aware has never uttered a public word of acknowledgement of sacrifice of RUC officers and soldiers during Op Banner.

Bizarrely he appears to believe that ‘Boys have Periods’.

I now urge Doug Beattie, the UUP MLA, not to make the same mistake as Nesbitt.

He should remember that the UUP lost seats in 2017 and Nesbitt resigned as leader.

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I would point out to him that the SDLP and Alliance are, like Sinn Fein, happy to see the history of the ‘Troubles’ rewritten whereby those who upheld the law are demonised and those who killed and maimed are rewarded with political power.

Tom Nash, Derriaghy