It might be time to revisit David Trimble’s radical 1975 plan for Stormont
A leter from Tom Carew:
Almost forgotten, so far, about David Trimble is his stand — in 1975 within the then Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party (VUPP) in the Constitutional Convention in Stormont — for a cross-community Voluntary Emergency Coalition (with SDLP).
He took this stand along with the late Glen Barr who had led the 1974 Ulster Workers Council strike and VUPP leader Bill Craig as an imaginative alternative to the compulsory power-sharing of the Sunningdale model.
Nobody else in either unionist or nationalist circles — or in VUPP itself — had the courage or the vision to take up that challenge.
John Cushnahan in his article in the News Letter on Wednesday (‘Trimble was a unique and complex individual,’ July 27, see link below) is one of the few people who has referred to this earlier stand taken by Mr Trimble.
David Trimble’s signing the Friday April 10, 1998 Belfast Agreement was another key chapter but maybe it is now time to revisit his earlier radical 1975 model as Stormont still remains in total deadlock?
Tom Carew, Ranelagh, Dublin
John Cushnahan: David Trimble was a unique and complex individual