Sir, - It is perhaps just as well many electors do not bother to read the manifesto's of political parties, as if they did the Ulster Unionist Party may have polled even fewer votes in the recent forum elections than it did, even if it didn't have the added disadvantages of fighting the election on a list system and facing competition from 10 other pro union parties".
Whilst I heartily agree with Ulster unionists seeking an alternative to, and replacement of the Anglo Irish Agreement, I nevertheless feel duty bound to express my opposition in the strongest terms to three key sentences in the Ulster Unionist Forum Election Manifesto, i.e., (1) "Ulster unionists intend being present on June 10th when the talks commence"; (2) "Ulster unionists wish to see the incorporation into UK law of the European Convention on Human Rights"; and (3) "Ulster unionist proposals for an administration in Northern Ireland are based on the principle of proportionality". All these sentences could easily have been lifted from an Alliance Party document!
To begin with, one has to ask what hope is there of replacing the Anglo Irish Agreement with an alternative accord if one is actually meeting under the auspices of the very agreement one is seeking to replace? For all the faults of the last round of inter party talks - many of which will surely be repeated in the impending all party negotiations - they were at least conducted when the Anglo Irish diktat was suspended, to enable participants to those talks to discuss alternative arrangements free from prejudice of the existing shoddy deal. Ulster unionists should at least boycott the impending negotiations until the Anglo Irish Agreement, Conference and Secretariat have been suspended.
Secondly, do we really want to incorporate into UK domestic law a charter of human rights which is based on humanist values rather than the teachings of the Open Bible, and which binds us to jurisdiction of the fiercely anti British European Court of Human Rights with all its alien rulings and judgments? If so, perhaps Ulster unionists should change their aim of wishing to "keep Ulster British" to wishing to "make Ulster European"?
Thirdly, on the issue of proportionality, why all the sudden clamour to give minority parties chairmanships of policy committees in a future assembly? Even the Alliance Party's sister party in Great Britain, the Liberal Democrats, do not give minority parties chairmanships of policy committees in liberal democrat controlled local authorities in Great Britain, so why Ulster unionists should want to share power with minority parties (particularly Irish nationalists) in a future unionist controlled assembly in Northern Ireland is anyone's guess!
These three policies of the Ulster Unionist Party make me very angry. Coupled with the on going campaign to sever or weaken the link between the Orange Order and the UUP, one might well ask is the Ulster Unionist Party really trying to keep Ulster British or is "New Unionism" merely trying to outflank "New Labour" in the race to see which of the two parties can most quickly depart from their roots. - Yours, etc.,
Royal Tunbridge Wells,
Kent.