A personal message from News Letter editor Ben Lowry

	I N S I D E R

Jan 6, 2024

Ben Lowry

Editor

I write this on a beautiful, bright January Ulster morning, after numerous uplifting sunny days!

Last year was warmer than average, which is no surprise, and wetter, but I wasn't expecting to find it was actually less sunny than the norm

I am delighted to run this essay by Eoghan Harris, dismissing the idea that David Trimble was 'fascinated' with Gerry Adams. Eoghan has been a vital friend of unionism amid the retrospective vindication of terrorism, so it is most unfortunate that he has been feeling snubbed

Talking about legacy of terrorism I feel it must be said that the BBC, with its considerable resources, produced badly unbalanced reports on the death of General Frank Kitson, which mentioned military killings but nothing on how the military began to get the upper hand on the vicious terror onslaught at the time

Here Dermot Nesbitt, a supporter of Brian Faulkner, recalls with sadness giving a speech in defence of power sharing at a key Ulster Unionist meeting 50 years ago, when Mr Faulkner lost a party vote and soon stood down

And here the brave Dr William Kitchen once again issues a rare defence of Northern Ireland's grammar schools. Why, when the abolition of grammars gravely damaged the English education system, are such voices so few? They will always find a space on our pages

NI's relationship to the EU remains the big political story in unionism. Adam Kula reports on new food packaging rules make it mandatory to have EU logos on 'protected' goods like Comber potatoes whilst goods in GB must bear UK logos

There is a unionist row over access to the EU single market. Sammy Wilson has implicitly contradicted his party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson on saying NI can benefit from full access to both EU and UK markets

The economist Dr Esmond Birnie warns against the notion that NI can have its cake and eat it in that respect and Baroness Hoey says it can be unfettered trade with EU or UK but not both

In my column I say that with the Ulster Unionist also praising the opportunities of EU access, there is then a question for DUP and UUP how they would react if Stormont was to vote on losing such access to regain wholly unfettered UK internal trade

Finally, how sad that Linda McAuley is moving on from the consumer programme on Radio Ulster. I remember well her wonderful and distinctive Northern Irish voice on the radio in the 1980s, on Downtown. I hope she stays on the airwaves

Ben Lowry

Editor

Ben Lowry: Unionists have slowly lost faith in any idea of the best of both worlds from the EU and UK