Voters in England need to take note of the strength of unionist opposition to Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal in Northern Ireland

Voters in England (and I daresay also Wales) need to take serious note of the strength of unionist opposition to Boris Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement in Northern Ireland. Not least supporters of the Brexit Party.

It is time that the Conservative and Unionist Party took the Union seriously. The cynical exploitation of the 10 DUP votes in the House of Commons by Theresa May with the aid of English money for Conservative party political advantage is just one deplorable result of her electoral failure in England in 2017.

It is yet another example of British political bribery when true political support is lacking. Ireland has deserved better than this. As has England.

We cannot continue much longer with an undemocratic system in which millions of people are routinely disenfranchised by the first-past-the-post system (excellent only for Aintree, Cheltenham and Epsom) and an unelected chamber wielding excessive influence through parliamentary cronies.

It is more than an embarrassment. The outcome is likely to be catastrophic, as was the defeat of Gladstone’s Home Rule Bills in 1886 and 1893 by the vested interests of the House of Lords.

And as indeed was the partition of Ireland itself in 1921.

We are still in need of great leaders able to make peace in Ireland something more than a pious aspiration and a fanciful dream.

Dr Gerald Morgan, Trinity College Dublin