Letter: The ​Union is too important to be left solely in the care of politicians

With the votes counted and the DUP licking their wounds we’re already hearing calls for unionist unity, how with a single unionist party it would all have been different and the Union more secure, but is this the case?

Is it not the case that the Union, our national identity is too important to be left in the care of politicians trying to tackle day to day issues of concern.

In any case let’s be clear the DUP seats weren’t lost due to a loss of support for the Union, a number of factors were involved, their recent and previous handling of the protocol, and a failure to show any contrition for what were clearly mistakes of policy and judgement.

Looking ahead there is a danger in a panicked rush to unionist unity, particularly in the form of a single unionist party, the danger is that the party will be seen by the broader electorate primarily as a single issue movement, to maintain the Union, however their performance in local councils and at Stormont will be the yardstick by which the electorate judge them come election time.

Where this to be the out working of calls for closer unionist unity then the potential loser is the Union itself.

Grassroots support for Scottish independence seems little changed since the 2014 referendum, yet its accepted that with support for the Scottish nationalists collapsing on issues that had little to do with independence the cause has been set back possibly for a generation, this illustrates the danger of allowing an issue of long term constitutional importance to be associated with a single political party subject to a fairly short electoral cycle.

Their fortunes become intertwined.

As i suggested at the start, the Union is too important to be left solely in the care of politicians.

Tying the Union to the fortunes of a single political party would be reckless as the Scottish nationalists have demonstrated.

Alex Swan, Ex UUP Councillor, Drumbo