Young
Unionists

I read with interest a BBC news report from the 19 June where Peter Robinson urged negotiation with Sinn Fein over the education issue. Mr Robinson said that the executive needed to “get into negotiation mode” and that if they could agree over education it would show they could agree over anything.

My response to this would be to advise Mr Robinson to get agreement within his own party before he tries to broker a deal with Sinn Fein. His own Junior Minister Jeffrey Donaldson MP MLA made his views on education negotiations very clear in a letter to his local paper the Ulster Star.

In this letter Jeffrey Donaldson accused my good self of defeatism for appealing for negotiations months ago. Furthermore Mr Donaldson accused me of deliberately misleading the public for insisting that negotiations where necessary and that the DUP’s “salvation of the Grammar schools” at St Andrews wouldn’t be enough to keep academic selection.

In this letter Jeffrey Donaldson insisted that “the law was on the side of the grammar schools” and that any attempt at negotiations would merely “split” unionist resistance to the scheme. If Alderman Donaldson still believes this to be the case then we can no doubt expect a stern rebuke against the first minister. This rebuke may not be timely as it is over 3 months since the decision was made but our wee Jeffrey has the reassurance that the law is on his side and that the DUP saved Grammar schools at St Andrews. Surely this reassurance is more important than the ministerial paycheck.

Tags: Academic selection, Jeffrey Donaldson, Lagan Valley, UUP