Letters: Are we just running down the clock?

Are we just running down the clock?

You don’t even have to look closely at our two unionist parties to see the cracks.

They’re not just seriously flawed, they’re crumbling, and the tremors signal an aftershock. I can’t think of one politician in either party who has leadership qualities and can command respect.

Unionism is in retreat, in disarray, and in denial. I marshal my evidence for that in the hope I’ll be challenged and corrected. We now have joint rule from London and Dublin. Three of the four Westminster seats in Belfast are held by nationalists. Stormont is controlled by a pan nationalist front, I include Alliance. The Irish language is being promoted in every areas of our lives, politically motivated, and has unionist support. The GAA, with unionist consent, is increasingly conspicuous. North Down has seceded from the Union, closely followed by East Belfast, and Ulster rugby refuses to fly the Ulster flag. Even North Antrim votes Alliance. These unionists all have political brain damage and keep shooting themselves in the foot.

There is a well co-ordinated process of conditioning that is growing and wearing down our resistance. Many gullible unionists, seduced with the romance of Irish myth, and the connivance of Britain, are promoting an Irish identity. Our British roots that once ran deep in Ulster soil are gradually being dug out, and we in our apathy are powerless. This movement is now in full flow, and if we are going to put a brake on it, we have to work hard to regain our self-respect and a modicum of dignity.

As this tide builds to a momentum, our politicians are being blown away in its wake. They are helpless and hopeless, and simply have no answers.

Both sides are playing a political game, but nationalist politicians, with British and Irish connivance, do it better. Time is short for unionists, and our politicians are merely running down the clock. My fear is that truth is the biggest casualty in all this. Morally and spiritually, both communities are in a tailspin, and if that continues, a United Kingdom, or a united Ireland, won’t matter. We’ll all come down with a crash, and politics won’t fix it.

Clive Maxwell, Bleary