Red hands across the sea
Sir: The biased tone of Gay Firth's letter (23 May) scarcely merits a reply in full. I restrict myself to a few salient points.
We are told that the Unionist party is not democratic. I as a member of that party cannot understand this criticism. The party is open to all; it is elected in the same manner as those in the rest of the United Kingdom and the ordinary member has more opportunity of putting his point of view to his public representatives than in any other party. If Gay Firth is, as appears, not prepared to accepted the results of the electorate's free exercise of their powers then who is she to call us undemo- cratic?
Perhaps Gay Firth who, with a Glas- wegian's intimate knowledge of the situation in Ulster, heralds the Alliance party as the dawn of the new day in Northern Ireland politics could enlighten us as to their policies, since we remain in blissful ignorance.
Jeremy Burchill Queens University Conservative and Union- ist Assn., Students Union, Belfast 7
Sir: Gay Firth has accurately analysed the party-political malaise of Northern Ireland (Letters, 23 May), which has hamstrung any hope of real democratic activity until now.
But she must not make the mistake of assuming that 'any Northern Ireland government' still means a government re- sponsible to the Unionist party. The possi- bility of an alternative party being capable of forming a government under the existing constitution becomes daily more of a prob- ability. The rapid expansion of Alliance
party branches across the Stormont con- stituencies, and the volume of support which is now clearly transcending both class and religious barriers, indicate not only the need but also the expressed determination that government at Stormont cease to be a prerogative of the Unionist party.
For the present, it is the responsibility of a Unionist government to carry through and implement certain primary and vital reforms. It is no less our responsibility as citizens to further this reform programme in every way—as we are doing. But the crude and obvious wish of large and growing Unionist party factions to destroy that pro- gramme merely strengthens the likelihood that the next Stormont administration will be an Alliance government.
Anthony C. Cowdy Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, 76 Cromwell Road, Belfast
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