We are living in times of great stress and despondency for many families. I had occasion to visit Foodstock in the Andersonstown area of west Belfast last week and witnessed workers busily compiling hundreds of food parcels to deliver to families living in silent despair, struggling to pay gas bills and have enough money to put food on the table.

It speaks volumes about Britain’s cynical engagement with this part of Ireland that, having conceded the principle regarding the need for increased public expenditure by dangling the carrot of an enhanced financial package as an incentive to try and cajole the DUP into ending its boycott, the Tory government would believe it acceptable to withhold such funds unless and until unionism’s lead party decides to re-enter Stormont.

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Thus has it always been that Ulster was destined to suffer as unionism........

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