On May the second this year, on this blog, I predicted that the proposed changes in the Unionist party, inaugurated by David Cameron, would lead to the Unionists having minimal representation. It didn’t take a brain surgeon to work that out, but it is a fact that it has happened. I don’t blame the electorate, because the whole thing is being confused by spurious rhetoric, and hollow promises, when our so-called leaders in Stormont, can’t agree on anything substantial, and we’re drifting into a morass. I fail to understand how approximately two thirds of the electorate can be virtually disenfranchised, when once they were the main force in Northern Ireland. If this is allowed to persist without remedial measure so that the Unionists present a common front, we might soon be ruled from Dublin. Is that the ruse? More than one government has given the impression that Northern Ireland is a drain on Britain, when in actual fact because we are behind the times, I believe our standards are as high as any on the mainland.
There are still those Unionists who were part of the old government machine, and I urge them to sort their differences out, find a common path and let Unionism take the position it once did and represent the majority once again. There is no arguing that in the distant past, there were levels of injustice, but to a great extent these have been amended, and the electorate on both sides of the political divide have not the same outlook nor the intensity of outlook that brought us to the Troubles. The Nationalists understandably will go on working for a United Ireland, while at the same time it is hoped, they will ostracise terrorism in the name of a United Ireland. I do not wish to be a rabble-rouser, and I’m certainly not putting ideas into the minds of the UFF, as they are unlikely to read this blog, and anyway can draw conclusions as well as anyone. But if push comes to shove, and the Unionists are totally sidelined, we could be put back 40 years, and by past experience, for what?