Letter: The tactics may differ, but DUP and UUP both seem focused on resuming government with Sinn Fein

Concurrently, the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party has been parroting the line that a Northern Ireland Executive must be established in order to “secure Northern Ireland’s future within the Union”.

Whilst securing the Union and making Northern Ireland work for everyone are both laudable objectives, they are not achievable within the rigged political structures of the 1998 Belfast Agreement.

Although their tactics differ, the DUP and Ulster Unionist Party leaderships both appear focussed on finding ways to resume partnership government with Sinn Fein.

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein leaders continue to attempt to justify the murder of over 1,800 innocent citizens by the PIRA by celebrating and glorifying their so-called ‘volunteers’.

All without a jot of concern or consideration for victims, survivors or justice.

Sinn Fein is no ordinary political party.

They are the only party in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Europe with, and under the control of, an illegal, heavily armed and operational ‘private army’.

They are not fit to serve in government in any democracy worth the name and the DUP and UUP should not pretend otherwise nor seek to sanitise their character.

If, as many expect, Jeffrey Donaldson is to announce in the coming weeks that the DUP will effectively end their opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol and return to Stormont, perhaps he can explain to the electorate how DUP MLAs voting to elect a Sinn Fein first minister will help to make NI work for everyone when Sinn Fein remains committed to the destruction of Northern Ireland?

Similarly, perhaps Doug Beattie and Jeffrey Donaldson can each explain how unionism benefits by establishing and participating in an executive that is obligated to enact legislation that is incompatible with the Act of Union?

Thomas Smyth, Belfast BT4