Sir, – Stephen Collins’s analysis of a recent meeting between stockbrokers Davy and Sinn Fein representatives (“Notion that Sinn Féin would take radical steps to dismantle the current social order is fanciful”, Opinion & Analysis, May 31st) is oddly naive, coming from a commentator who surely understands that politics is “the art of the possible”, that political parties evolve, and that policy shifts are integral to the effective workings of any democracy, part of a natural and essential response to social, economic and societal change.
The column’s tone implies that a political party should remain stubbornly rooted in its past. Your columnist has often advocated consensus politics. And yet, in this instance, he repudiates legitimate attempts to find common ground between business interests and political representatives.
Whatever the pros and cons of the argument made by your columnist, his assertion that “This may well come back to bite Davy at some future date if its new friends don’t make it into power” strikes an alarming note. – Yours, etc,
ALAN SWEETMAN,
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Dublin 8.