The Parades Commission, a relic of the past, and the dinosaurs of the Portadown Orange Order have just reminded us that some people just can’t move on. Thirty-five members of the Portadown Orange Order LoL (Lots of Losers) have been allowed to reopen old wounds we all thought were left behind, wounds that could bring back long-buried issues such as Drumcree, Lower Ormeau and Derry. What is the point, you may ask? There isn’t any, other than the Lots of Losers who continue to embrace a nostalgic brand of unionism steeped in the 1790s and later one built around a siege mentality and keeping our working-class people apart under the mantra that “Working Class Seamus and Working-Class Billy have nothing in common”.
Gavin Robinson, leader of the DUP, called it a “significant and long-overdue breakthrough,” SERIOUSLY. Clearly Gavin is being led by the nose by no other than political, visionary, and intellectual heavyweights such as Jim Allister, Jamie Bryson, and renegades in his own party such as Carla Lockhart and Jonathan Buckley. It seems that this bunch do not understand the principle that societies are built on the foundation of social cohesion. All our parties, including our so-called social democratic friends, supported the setting up of the Office of Identity and Cultural Expression, a quango set up to embed identity politics, a plague on all your houses.
John Burroughs, current leader of the UUP, said that the Parades Commission decision was a “significant determination.” This is BS dressed up as insight. The very same man is going to say at his party’s conference that unionism is at a crossroads. I would suggest that he, Gavin Jim, and Jamie are taking unionism down a blind alley. I wrote an article for the Newsletter in 2023 about the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement; I called it “25 Years of celebrating inertia”. Today, I would only need to change one thing in the title and call it “28 years of celebrating inertia”.
Rolling back the years does not address the challenges facing our society, such as AI and its impact on the future of work, our dysfunctional system of government, a healthcare system under severe pressure, and, most importantly, the lack of vision and a roadmap for coming generations. What is clear is that we do not have a system of government that is focused on outcomes; it’s, in the name, a mandatory coalition.Tiocfaidh ár lá which translates as, our day will come, was summed up by Abraham Lincoln at his Gettysburg address about democracy as “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” The system of government that we the electorate have been saddled with is closer to tribalism and possibly even anarchy.
Suneil Sharma
26th September 2026
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