Letter: All unionist groupings should work together to prepare a clear statement identifying the dangers created by the Protocol/Windsor Framework

Sadly only Jim Allister and his TUV have nailed their colours to the mast. Unionists must present their strategy to get rid of the border but too many are silent about the matter

The coming election provides voters in Northern Ireland with the opportunity to repudiate the Protocol.

That opportunity must be grasped now – it will not arise again. All unionist groupings have a duty to work together to prepare a clearly documented and unequivocal statement identifying the dangers and practical difficulties which have been created, and that remain, as a result of the Protocol/Windsor Framework.

There should be no practical difficulties over this task. Such a statement should then become the core document on which all ‘Unionist’ candidates stand in the July election.

Letters to editor

In the 1975 Convention Election there were three unionist parties which campaigned around a common focus, whilst each still remained able to present differing styles of approach when appealing to their own segment of support.

Whilst a first-past-the-post election presents a significant challenge in that votes cannot be transferred, a core anti-protocol policy statement will make clear the views of the unionist population on this central unresolved political issue.

It will also enable the DUP leadership to re-commit to opposing the protocol whilst remaining free to claim that they have achieved some amelioration of its impact. The Ulster Unionist leadership likewise needs to re-commit.

All shades of unionist option must be challenged to unambiguously present their favoured strategy to secure the removal of the protocol. Such removal alone will enable the UK to once again become one “united” kingdom.

Too many unionist leaders are silent on this particular subject. Such silence only serves to convey the impression that they are prepared to acquiesce to life under a colonial European dictatorship in return for the opportunity to participate in the running of an ever diminishing local fiefdom. In doing so those who have the responsibility to lead will ultimately, after the ship has sailed, discover that they have only connived in sowing the seeds of their own destruction.

Sadly to date only Jim Allister and his TUV colleagues have unambiguously nailed their colours to the mast.

Jeremy Burchill, Leyburn, North Yorkshire, former Unionist Assembly Member 1982-86