Letter: It is time for unionism to unite by withdrawing from Stormont returning to our original position before Jeffrey Donaldson's 2024 capitulation

The UK will have a new prime minister in the next few weeks. It also seems likely that some segments of the Labour Party who were never in favour of Brexit will be keen for further EU resets. Both things create opportunities for unionism to revisit the issue of the Irish Sea border. It must be obvious to most that the Donaldson u-turn in February 2024 was a huge strategic mistake for unionism if we wanted NI restored to full UK membership.

Polling seems to suggest that most people think Stormont is doing a bad job even if different groups blame different people in terms of why. It seems unlikely the present model of government will last a timeframe like 50 years.

There is a great deal of preparation taking place as to possible models of all Ireland government that might replace it whereas many unionist leaders are clinging to the old idea it will never happen by simply lowering the bar so that basically anything short of a full 32 county socialist republic is now acceptable regardless of how detached we become from the rest of the UK.

Unionism needs to push its concerns onto the new prime minister’s agenda. Its not going to happen naturally with other problems crowding it out. Growing discontentment with the devolved assembly and unionism having undermined its own position of the Irish Sea border breaching the Good Friday Agreement by the Donaldson u-turn has made withdrawing from the executive a much weaker card than it would have been than if we had held to our position to begin with but it is the only path way to highlight unionist concerns.

It is time for unionism to unite by withdrawing from the executive and returning to our original position before the February 2024 capitulation. Let all members of the unionist family issue a statement to government that they will not participate in any power sharing executive until Northern Ireland is restored to full UK membership. Our system of government can only function with good will which doesn’t exist under current post Brexit arrangements.

A poorly functioning Stormont executive lends itself much more to a republican narrative of a failed state than a unionist narrative of making NI work.

Mr R G McDowell, Belfast BT5