Letter: Now is not the time to be putting unionist seats in jeopardy - we should be uniting around one party
A letter from Jim McClelland
I was very disappointed to read the letter from Kirk McDowell (Robinson shouldn’t have ruled out threat of Stormont collapse - it makes them powerless, October 8).
Arguing that the DUP leader should be pulling down Stormont on a whim is not helpful to the unionist cause. Whilst Mr McDowell alights to the fact that Sinn Fein have not ruled out pulling down the institutions in future, this is a red herring.
Does Mr McDowell really think that unionists should be taking a lead out of Sinn Fein’s book? There is absolutely no logic here.
Whilst the Irish Sea border has been an absolute travesty, it is important to recognise that now more than ever is the time for unionists to stick together.
A house divided against itself can never succeed. This makes Mr McDowell’s attacks on the DUP leadership’s strategy all the more bizarre. Now is the time to get behind Gavin Robinson’s meticulous leadership. This applies to all unionists in Ulster. Full stop.
Finally, I found the suggestion that DUP members should resign their seats for a fresh mandate absolutely devoid of all strategy and common sense. Did Mr McDowell miss the result of the last election?
Firstly, the DUP got 172,058 votes. Far more than any other unionist party. This shows that the unionist people are behind them and applaud their handling of the sea border.
However, despite that indisputable fact, the Westminster election was an absolute disaster for unionism, with our largest unionist party losing three seats, and only holding on in East Londonderry and East Antrim by a hare’s breadth. Now is absolutely not the time to be playing fast and loose with unionist seats.
The only possible ray of good fortune that any proper unionist could possibly see from the last election was Alex Easton not only taking a seat off Alliance, but showing the unionist people what unity truly means by appointing a very hard-working replacement from unionism’s most trusted party – the DUP.
Sadly, the first part of this triumph was undone by UUP and TUV in Lagan Valley splitting the unionist vote and letting Alliance in.
So in summary, Mr McDowell is misguided in his recent letter.
Now is not the time to be resigning unionist seats and risking other parties winning them - it is time for unionism to unite around the only party that can win and all true unionists must help in this endeavour.
Jim McClelland, Bushmills