Letter: What is happening at some rallies today is the DUP getting a taste of its own medicine

I had to read his comments several times to fully absorb his lack of self-awareness of what he and his DUP colleagues have been doing over the last 50 years!

Phrases like ‘a poisonous atmosphere has been created at meetings opposing his party’s deal on the Irish Sea border’ and he won’t lend credence to the idea that his leader is a ‘treacherous sell-out merchant.’

He warned against ‘further splits within unionism’. He also said that while he wouldn’t have made the judgements his leader made, ‘it doesn’t make him a bad person or a traitor.’

There are many points on which I agree with Sammy, but does he not see that the sort of behaviour and comments to which he is objecting are exactly the same as he and his party made about successive Ulster Unionist Party leaders and members?

Terence O’Neill was called a traitor, James Chichester-Clarke was called a traitor, Brian Faulkner got similar treatment at the hands of the former DUP leader, Dr Paisley, who excelled himself when he called the late Jim Molyneaux a ‘Judas Iscariot.’

There was no more loyal an Ulsterman than Jim, who wore the King’s uniform during World War 2.

But the abuse of UUP leaders didn’t stop there. The treatment meted out to David Trimble was exceptional as many will recall, both verbal and physical, and comments from platforms in more recent times targeted Doug Beattie.

Sammy and his leader have been sharing platforms with both Mr Allister and Mr Bryson over the last two years in a campaign designed to bring an end to the border in the Irish Sea, the boycott of Stormont being the means they adopted to maximise their leverage.

Many of us knew from the outset that those on the platforms would, sooner or later, fall out, and so it has happened.

The boycott was a failure, only succeeding in radicalising nationalism behind Sinn Fein, and most important of all, the border in the Irish Sea remains, despite the outrageous spin from Sammy’s leader and colleagues.

EU laws still apply in Northern Ireland and the EU court will be the final arbiter in disputes over trade and the border inspection posts are currently under construction at our ports.

It is all a sorry state of affairs for unionism. A major rethink of the way forward is urgently needed.

But I have to say to Sammy, that what is happening at some rallies today is the DUP getting a taste of its own medicine, and he clearly doesn’t like it.

My party had to take years of such abuse, name calling and worse.

Maybe Sammy Wilson needs to reflect on the fact that in campaigning for Brexit and becoming a supporter of Boris Johnson, who proposed the Irish Sea border in the first place, (which the DUP initially endorsed) he has inadvertently help lead Northern Ireland into its worst constitutional crisis since partition?

Reg Empey, House of Lords, Westminster