Sir, - If the referendum produces some comfort for the No camp, I am sure we will hear much personal abuse directed at the Yes promoters and we will certainly hear loud celebrations.
Then the No chiefs will go back to their comfortable lifestyles and leave the rest of us to deal with the aftermath.
The attitude of world opinion will probably be "a plague on all their houses". We can forget about inward investment, for who would invest tuppence in a country heading for another 25 years of turmoil?
Dr Paisley says vote No to block "the slide to increased and eventual Dublin Rule". Has he managed to do that during the past 25 years? Mr McCartney promises to "turn the tide". Has he managed to do that"?
There is much scare-mongering being generated by the No camp about the future of the RUC and the RIR, but I wonder how many of those politicians have actually put themselves into a part-time security forces uniform to assist the forces of law and order when they needed help?
The political parties supporting a No vote make much play about saving our Britishness but the reality is that they are fighting for the very credibility of their own political futures. A resounding Yes vote, coupled with their sulking during the talks, would leave them in a very weak position.
Whilst I find much in the Agreement that sticks in my throat, it holds no constitutional concerns for confident unionists and I believe it removes the spectre of a united Ireland from our political arena for a very long time. Now we can work at bread-and-butter issues together to build a society we can all be proud to belong to.
Any unionist taking the positive step of voting Yes will be no less a unionist for so doing, but must appreciate that there is much hard work ahead. At least we will have halted the slide into a United Ireland that our politicians have failed to do for years despite their "never, never, never" and "turn the tide" rhetoric. - Yours, etc., (Cllr) Alan Chambers,
North Down Borough Council, Co Down.