Loyalist Communities Council

Paramilitary transition is official policy - any objections should be taken up with the five main Stormont parties and the British and Irish governments, who have designed and agreed it

THE DUP has indicated that it has no plans to break off engagement with the representatives of loyalist paramilitaries who remain silent on an escalating criminal feud and drug arrests.

A body that represents the views of loyalist paramilitaries has been criticised for their silence after loyalists have been linked to a weekend of attacks in north Down and a major drugs seizure in east Belfast.

THE SDLP will not be appearing on the Stephen Nolan Show until the party gets assurances from BBC bosses that its representatives will be "treated properly ", Colum Eastwood has said.

Forgive my bluntness. Last week, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland announced that he may consider a loyalist talks proposal.

DURING a recent television appearance the Loyalist Communities Council chairman, David Campbell, claimed when discussing the potential for loyalist violence that “the credible threat is if unionism and loyalism is continually undermined".

It is a question that has been asked many times, but 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement and almost three decades since their ceasefires, why is the existence of loyalist paramilitary groups still tolerated? A focus has again been placed on the continuing threat posed by the UVF, UDA and others after the chair of the Loyalist Communities Council was quizzed on reports that paramilitaries were prepared to bring violence to the streets if the Irish Sea border is not removed.

A tough leadership challenge was always to be expected for Sir Jeffrey Donaldson in his efforts to bring the DUP back to Stormont, which must surely be the party's eventual destination.