Sir, – Eamonn McCann’s incisive, informative piece (Opinion, August 1st) should be read by everyone who is interested in the real politics at work in Stormont. Finally I understand Paisley’s apparent volte face. – Yours, etc,
KEITH DONALD,
Rockbrook, Dublin 16.
Sir, – Eamonn McCann doesn’t go far enough when he says that under the Belfast Agreement “In the North today it is gays and women who must wait”(Opinion, August 1st). Labour is still waiting here as well.
Our right to vote for candidates of the Labour Party that hopes to govern us and set our taxes after the 2015 Westminster general election has been ruthlessly suppressed by the party ever since the North came into being. This severely curtails our democratic rights.
The suppression of Labour Party electoral politics has produced almost a century of communal headcount politics that generated the Troubles and resulted in the Belfast Agreement based on communal identity.
Everyone is waiting for the right to vote Labour and the emergence of non-communal politics. This is the best way to ensure women and gays their rights – and a future for us all. – Yours, etc,
BOYD BLACK,
Secretary, Northern Ireland
Constituency Labour Party,
Church Road,
Belfast.