THE inability of the DUP and its leaders to embrace 21st-century democratic ideals and realities continues apace. The resignation of new leader Edwin Poots, after 21 days in post, comes as a result of some lingering internecine conflicts but was mainly because he had agreed to accept that support for the Irish language legislation demanded by Sinn Fein was a price worth paying to maintain power-sharing in Stormont.

Though Mr Poots could never be regarded as a moderate within his own party, it appears that his pragmatic decision to try to re-establish a working devolved government has been torpedoed by the intransigence and delusory posturing of his party colleagues.

At a time when the Good Friday Agreement looks fragile, the Gordian Knot that is the Northern Ireland protocol intensifies and a range of internal issues, including healthcare, are increasingly urgent, the DUP have decided to retreat to their comfort zone of sectarian politics and “no surrender” mentality.

READ MORE: Edwin Poots resigns as DUP leader after just 21 days in role

Depressingly there does not appear to be a politician who recognises compromise within DUP ranks. Both of the possible contenders for leadership, Jeffrey Donaldson and Sammy Wilson, are old guard reactionaries steeped in the tradition of the Orange Order and characterised by their sectarian, defensive mentality. Power-sharing with Republicans is anathema to them and they would adopt regressive policies and practices to reassert their triumphalist vision of power in the North if permitted. The concerted Unionist action that destroyed nascent power-sharing agreements like Sunningdale in 1974 springs readily to mind. Unfortunately for these anachronistic and democratically renunciative individuals, even Northern Ireland has moved on since then.

With the marching season only days away and the potential for violence and disorder that it brings, it is essential that some sort of stability is reached within DUP ranks and the Stormont Assembly. The UK Government must be prepared to be proactive in supporting this, or risk losing the hard-won peace in Northern Ireland that Brexit and a mendacious buffoon of a Prime Minister have cast into jeopardy.

Owen Kelly
Stirling

I MUST say that the “Long Letter” courtesy of Cliff Purvis invigorated me on Saturday and was a reminder of my time before last in People’s Republic of China, where I was provided the usual most extravagant courtesy and hospitality. I have sojourned there many times over the years.

READ MORE: PM has picked the No 10 village fete committee to run this failed UK state

I have gazed on the exquisitely preserved cadaver of Mao Zedong on entering the Forbidden City in Beijing yet had to make a formal request to acquire his “little red book” – not readily available, and a source of extreme merriment amongst my charming hosts who considered such a ludicrous acquisition as tantamount to sacrilege! How times have changed.

It will ultimately be very similar in the current administrative hiatus, albeit as polar opposite in the UK. An inevitable falling by the wayside of history. A gargantuan comedic relief in years to come.

Roderick MacSween
Stornoway

THERE have been two deaths, in the USA and Paris, caused by e-scooters and also many injuries, but very few criminal charges. People are driving them on pavements, leaving children and people with any form of disability in extreme danger.

As a street cleaner in Edinburgh I regularly had to jump out the way of cyclists cycling very fast on pavements, and they ignored my chastisements. Mobile wheelchairs, which are supposed to be driven at walking speed, are already being driven at full pelt on pavements, at a speed that Linford Christie would find it difficult to keep up with.

In past children were trained to get a cycle proficiency badge – still in place in some schools – which taught that pavements were for walking on, without any training on the use of mobile wheelchairs. The FM wants to introduce e-scooters in Scotland without any discussions with disabled groups or trade unions.

Rab Amos
Roslin

I MUST object very strongly to Robin MacLean’s false assumption that people who possess a “double-barrelled” name belong to his so-called “ya ya brigade” (Letters, June 20).

He possesses no evidence whatsoever as to why we have a longer surname than some. I have gone public before about where I come from and I do not refer to any geographic region. So far as my surname is concerned, one is a family name which is on my birth certificate and the other is an adopted name given to me, as a child, so without my permission, when my mother remarried. I have two grown-up children who possess just the one surname. My legal joining of my two surnames names, in a later time, was due to my own change of personal circumstances.

So, Mr Robin MacLean, please do no make wrong and a somewhat juvenile assumption about people with a different form of surname to others until you have any evidence as to reasons why. And then you might keep that knowledge to yourself instead of denigrating the fact which just now, you know nothing about.

Alan Magnus-Bennett
Fife