Letter: DUP leader should lead by example and return to his Stormont mandate

The populist race to the bottom of their ‘strong foundation’ with the DUP is a runaway train. There is only one way to break it: Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has to lead by example and return to his Lagan Valley Assembly mandate of 12,000. Turning his back on the Northern Ireland Assembly and running away from the Executive Office job-share back to Westminster has not served the people of Northern Ireland well.

Perfection is the enemy of the Good. Perhaps he just has to grasp the nettle for a return at the scheduled time of September 4th? October is a frontier, both in terms of the implementation of the Windsor Framework and the legislative time available in London on either side of the party conferences. In my view it is better to go back in before the NI Business Investment Conference on September 12-13, but if not by the end of October then when?

Alternative revenue-raising and co-operation with Dublin would have to be presented as consequences in November, if not already in train. The train has to leave, almost 20 years after Sir Jeffrey left the Ulster Unionist Party. We cannot just stagger towards January 27 2024, which is the next Chris Heaton-Harris deadline for an assembly election.

It could not be a midnight fudge again. In the past there was a plan to review the Good Friday Agreement every seven years. At that point we would be back to where we were with the March 2017 election, seven years later. The ‘status quo’ would be no better and unionism would certainly not be any stronger,

Gareth Burns, Co Down