Lord Empey is right about the DUP but the UUP also has questions to answer

I read Lord Empey’s reply (‘Unionists will pay for DUP change to first minister rules,’ March 19, see link below) to my letter (‘Extra candidates do not split the unionist vote but boost it,’ March 15) with interest.

I agree with his analysis of the damage done by the DUP changes at St Andrew’s to the selection of a first minister. It is hard to escape the conclusion that the changing of the selection of first minister from the largest grouping to the largest party was an (hitherto successful) DUP ploy to blackmail unionists into voting for them to stop a Sinn Fein first minister.

However, the rest of Lord Empey’s letter implies that his party is prepared to work the Belfast Agreement, even inside these strictures imposed by DUP at St Andrew’s. This deal promised unionists that no constitutional change could be made in Northern Ireland’s status without consent. The NI Protocol has done just that and allowed the EU and its local poodle, the Irish Republic, to make laws over our heads.

The imposition of the protocol has shown the Belfast Agreement to be a sham. It is time unionists united around the removal of both.

Will all unionists, including the UUP, combine to secure our place in the British Union, or will the lure of jobs and local power be sufficient for some so-called unionist parties to accept EU/Irish rule?

Tom Ferguson, Ballymoney

Letter: Unionists will pay for the DUP/Sinn Fein change to the mechanism for choosing first minister

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