Sammy Wilson: The Northern Ireland Secretary is earning title Chris ‘Heat-off’ Harris

The delivery of the Energy Bills Support Scheme in Northern Ireland continues to be shambolic.

The secretary of state has announced that payments will be made in the New Year without providing a firm commencement date.

There is continuing uncertainty about how payments will reach the most vulnerable people, who use keypad meters.

It is difficult to know who has played the greatest part in this shambles, the secretary of state or the business secretary, Grant Shapps.

Nor is it clear what the UK government’s motives are for continually changing the delivery mechanism of the scheme in Northern Ireland.

One thing is certain – Chris Heaton-Harris is earning the title Chris ‘Heat-off’ Harris.

His shambolic leadership of the Northern Ireland Office has contributed to the fact that many will be unable to heat their homes this Christmas.

Sammy Wilson, DUP MP, East Antrim

Unions should be backing duty of candour

As someone who supports the current industrial action of nurses and health care workers, I find the claim of their union leaders that their members are attempting to enhance the safety of patients as contradictory.

On the one hand union leaders seek public support for highlighting unsafe practices within healthcare and on the other hand union leaders oppose ‘An Organisational and Individual Legal Duty of Candour’ within Northern Ireland health and social care, as recommended by Justice John O’ Hara arising from the 2018 Hyponatremia Inquiry.

Mr Justice O’ Hara's recommendations were based solely on enhancing safe health practice, securing patient safety and it is truly shocking that five years after publication, his reasonable request for a legal duty of candour has not been implemented.

Much of the opposition to the legal duty of candour has come from health care unions whose opposition appears driven by protecting their members from legal scrutiny rather than protecting the general public from unsafe healthcare practices.

I would ask union leaders to explain their current contradictory position or better still, build on the undoubted public support they have for their industrial action and withdraw their opposition to Justice O’ Hara's reasonable and genuine recommendation to implement an organisational and individual legal duty of candour to enhance the safety of Northern Ireland people within health and social care.

Gerry Cullen,

Dungannon, Co.Tyrone

Protocol critics fail to grasp British intentions

Jim Allister, Jeremy Burchill and now Jamie Bryson have been involved in politics for some years.

Their recent letters (December 9, 12 and 16) re the Northern Ireland Protocol I would suggest exposes them to the criticism of failing to analyse and expose the long term strategy of the British establishment, namely that of breaking the Union with Northern Ireland.

The protocol is just the latest phase of this strategy and unfortunately it confirms my long held view of British government policy, that it was and is the destruction of the Union of Northern Ireland with Great Britain.

This commenced in 1972 when British Intelligence met Adams and McGuinness, with the exception of the late Roy Mason`s period as secretary of state I consider the underlying policy has been one of permitting the destruction of the Union by the PIRA to bring about Irish unification and British withdrawal.

Was it just coincidence that Paisley the ‘UltraUnionist’ and Boal met Provo representatives in 1973?

Why is this deceit never raised?

In the recent book Agents of Influence the author Aaron Edwards refers to the murder of Rev Robert Bradford and names one of the killers as John Joseph Haughey; he was identified by a witness and his fingerprints were found on the Thompson submachine gun but he was never arrested.

Why not?

Interestingly I have never heard of any defamation action by Haughey in respect of the book.

It is time the above named correspondents looked at the reality.

If any progress is to be made in destroying the protocol, the above facts and their consequences should be discussed as a first step, then an overall strategy implemented.

Lyle Cubitt,

Ballymena