I won’t vote Alliance or SDLP again given their cowardice in scrutinising these extreme lockdown curbs on our freedoms

For 50 years I was a regular Alliance voter. I would vote SDLP to keep Sinn Fein at bay. I gave UUP and even the DUP a preference.

However I have cast my last vote for Alliance and SDLP.

Both parties have shown a singular cowardice in scrutinising the series of North Korean style curbs on our freedoms imposed by an assembly which had just emerged from a three-year furlough.

McBride and Young have been allowed to make unchallenged statements with evidence either not demanded or not challenged.

This is naivety in the extreme.

What most disgusts me as a grandparent of seven is the way the MLAs on our so-called Education Committee have abandoned our school children in the delusion that death is an avoidable extra.

For years parents were made to feel guilty for taking their children off school for a week’s holiday in late June.

Now our MLAs think nothing of writing off an entire year. The only person I have any respect for is Peter Weir who throughout has tried his best to protect our children.

So who would I vote for next year — apart from Honest Jim Allister!

Possibly the DUP because although I don’t agree with some policies, at least they have members prepared to ask awkward questions and there is little doubt that Arlene is not happy to be dragged along the assembly’s present ill-thought out path.

The rest will not be welcome at my door.

James Tinneny, Co Londonderry

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