NEIL C. OLIVER, LL.B.,
Madam, - There can be only one appropriate instruction to supporters of violence who would purport to sit in the executive seat of government. The learned Dr John Reid, as Secretary of State, should follow the example of Oliver Cromwell when he went to the House of Commons in 1653 to dissolve the remainder, the Rump, of the Long Parliament which sat from 1640 to 1653.
The "Lord Protector" said: "It is time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have discovered by your contempt of all virtue and defiled by your practice of every vice. Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government".
He went on to say: "Ye have no more religion than my horse. Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. I command ye, therefore, upon the peril of your lives to depart immediately out of this place. Go, get ye out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone!"
It was Henry Ford who said, "History is more or less bunk!"
The benign Dr Reid talks about Sinn Féin riding two horses, democracy and terrorism, at the one time. The only place that this equine feat can be achieved successfully is in the circus. So will Dr Reid play the part of the clown and try to paint over the cracks, or will he crack his whip as ringmaster and call a halt to the charade of these imposters within Stormont's imposing façade?
Will the Secretary of State now protect democracy and debunk Sinn Féin's nonsense this time, or will he funk the challenge? History has a habit of repeating itself. - Yours, etc.,
NEIL C. OLIVER, LL.B.,
Newtownards,
Co Down.