An extraordinary amount of unionism’s current malaise stems from the DUP panicking over a LucidTalk poll in February 2021, which showed a shock jump in support for the TUV from 4 to 10 per cent.
The DUP should have held its nerve and asked if this was a false, freak or transient result. Instead, it immediately withdrew its reluctant acceptance of the Brexit protocol and went into a tailspin from which it has never recovered.
Now the party is making the same mistake over immigration.
A LucidTalk poll published in Monday’s Belfast Telegraph found unionists are six times likelier than nationalists and Alliance voters to think immigration in Northern Ireland is too high.
Newton Emerson: DUP needs to hold its nerve on immigration
Pensioners being left in the cold by a Stormont Executive frozen by indecision over winter fuel payments - The Irish News view
The findings were 82 per cent for all unionists and 88 per cent for DUP voters, compared to 13 and 10 per cent for nationalist and Alliance voters respectively.
The DUP has responded by saying “there are deeply held concerns held by many people” and calling for Northern Ireland not to become “a target” for illegal immigrants.
Protesters at Belfast City Hall earlier this monthIt has tried to soften this by saying the UK........