Sir, – Your editorial argues that the prospect of reunification is ill-served by Sinn Féin "linking it to short-term political advantage" ("The Irish Times view on Sinn Féin and Irish unity: A short-term political gambit", March 28th).
Sinn Féin is hardly alone in weighing its policies and priorities in terms of electoral advantage. Given their, at best, halfhearted efforts to establish a presence north of the Border, it might equally be argued that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have calculated that reunification holds no prospect of electoral gain for them.
If that is the case, prolonging partition may ensure short to medium-term electoral advantage but prove to be a disastrous miscalculation by those two parties over the longer term, which will almost certainly bring reunification and a cohort of new voters with no reason to support them. – Yours, etc,
PAUL LAUGHLIN,
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Derry.