Sir, – I do not believe that constitutional republicans, north or south of the Border, wish to see a restoration of direct rule. This is, however, what is on the cards with the imminent collapse of the Stormont Executive and Assembly if Sinn Féin continues to indulge far-left politics, even by putting at risk the republican principle of devolution for the people of the North.
The British government’s proposal for welfare reform is not unreasonable, as, fundamentally, it seeks to change social welfare in Northern Ireland from being a lifestyle choice toward being a genuine safety net; and to remind citizens that they are always better off in work than being a client of the state.
It would be some irony if Sinn Féin’s republican principles, the first of these being devolution of powers (leading one day, it is to be hoped, to a united Ireland), were now to be sacrificed at the altar of far-left economic ideology. – Yours, etc,
JOHN B REID,
Monkstown,
Co Dublin.