There will not be a ‘Foster’s last stand’

(The article can be read here: ‘Mystery and suspicion surround one question: Why did Foster do it? Aug 1)

What I take out of it is that Mrs Foster believes that she alone knows what is right for her party and Unionism in general and will accept no advice or guidance from colleagues however experienced and trusted.

The word arrogant comes to mind. She has form, unanswered phone calls from Downing Street, talking on national TV of putting the British Prime Minister on the naughty step — arrogance.

There is no shortage in history of examples of arrogant leaders who were filled with a sense of their own brilliance, they don’t end well at all. To cite an albeit extreme example — George Armstrong Custer.

He too was undoubtedly brave and focused but accepted no advice from colleagues or from those on the ground who could see plainly where he was headed and what the outcome would be. Custer was punished militarily in the most extreme manner for his folly and arrogance on the Bighorn River and took all of his 7th Cavalry with him into the bargain.

There will not be a Fosters last stand, she will have left the field by then maybe to Scotland and or the House of Lords. Not too sure about the rest of her 7th Cavalry, they may well have been left here to be punished severely politically on their own Bighorn River.

Harry Patterson, Castlecaulfield

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