THE DUP is letting down the side that is the north. It is contradicting the first letter of that acronym DUP by refusing to accept that its opponent Sinn Féin carried the day in the Stormont elections in May.
 
In many countries this outright blocking of democratic rule can have serious consequences. The DUP must find a way to drop some of their post-Brexit demands and form a government with Sinn Féin. Many people are in environments where they have to work with a difficult and annoying person they can't stand (this is not a suggestion that Sinn Féin is a difficult partner, by the way). The DUP has to stop pretending that they are doing anything other than avoiding the backlash that may follow if they work with Michelle O'Neill as First Minister.

Any hostility from DUP supporters towards their party is understandable because it looks like they are also fed up with a powerful political party that cannot looks itself in the mirror and ask, why were we standing to be elected as MLAs? There is that selfish maxim that our favourite person in the world is ourselves. This feeds the DUP personality towards the voter and with time this political party will have little influence in Northern Ireland politics because its supporters will finally say enough is enough.
 
Many migrants living and working in Northern Ireland actively avoid local politics here because of the behaviour of politicians. They ask, how do you get elected then not go to work to represent your constituents and earn your full salary? There is a way the electorate can deal with this problem once and for all. When the next election is announced, the voters should see the difference of day and night before they vote because it is not unreasonable to assume that they are part of the problem.

There is nothing that DUP is doing outside government that it can't do when it is part of the devolved Stormont Assembly. Students of peace discourses know very well that spending more time with your perceived foe will give you the opportunity to understand them better and can always lead to positive results. This isn’t a text book analysis, it is something we all do subconsciously as individuals, so why can't the DUP drop its conditions? It is because the party does not have strong, sensitive and collegiate leadership where responsibility for actions is shared. It is obvious that there are people in the DUP power matrix that would not have thought twice about working with the First Minister elect Michelle O'Neil.
 
The way DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson is running the show is a boring tale of feeling more important than the electorate who have given up asking the question, when will the Stormont Executive ever get back to work? These two political parties talk to each all the time behind our backs and the DUP needs to show a bit more maturity about this.
 
So, if another election is called soon because the government is basically dead and Sinn Féin wins again we could wait forever.
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