Weak unionist leaders are letting down their voters

When the DUP and the UUP changed leaders, we thought we would see more robust action against the NI Protocol.

This has failed to materialise and unionists are still like a ship without a rudder. We have a DUP minister whose department is in charge of building the infrastructure at the Irish Sea border highlighting getting cheap foreign labour (most from the EU) into Northern Ireland despite Covid.

Quite frankly most unionists outside the agri sector do not give a toss if farmers get their cheap labour but would rather see the border structure stopped.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson also allowed the DUP to attend a North/South meeting despite the hard-line stance by the Republic, along with their foreign allies, to destroy our place in the UK both politically and economically.

In the case of the UUP, we saw Mr Beattie welcoming into the UUP a redundant member of the Seanad who says the protocol is here to stay.

We do not need so-called unionists like Mr Marshall to fight our corner – he agrees with much of what nationalist parties like Sinn Fein/IRA, SDLP and the Alliance Party think.

We need unionists who are prepared to fight the protocol, no matter about money, and stop our Britishness being diluted to accommodate republicans and nationalists in their dream of a borderless Ireland being paid for by the British taxpayer.

The main unionist parties have lost contact with grassroots unionists because they have little in common. They may visit an odd bonfire but at the end of the day they will please the wealthy businessman rather than the ordinary unionist who wishes Northern Ireland to remain a full part of the United Kingdom.

Next May unionists will get their chance to clear the deck.

John Mulholland,

Doagh