Sir, - Ruth Dudley Edwards has treated us to yet another of her spin-doctor pieces: "Trimble's Oslo speech unmasks the nationalist bigots" (Opinion, December 21st).
If it is Ms Dudley Edwards's mission to change unfair perceptions of unionists in general and David Trimble in particular, I would advise her to heed the old marketing dictum that you should not knock other products. I am willing, indeed anxious, to believe that Mr Trimble has put his "hero of Drumcree" persona behind him and is now sincerely trying to implement the Belfast Agreement. I don't need to be persuaded that the great majority of Protestants are not bigots (how could I believe otherwise? - I am a Protestant); but telling me that the Sunday Business Post is aka "Sunday Bigots" or that Tim Pat Coogan is aka "Tim Pat Count-the-Catholics" does not enhance my perceptions of unionists. It merely suggests to me that it is not only the Welsh that Ms Dudley Edwards has "a natural antipathy towards".
I am not qualified to argue with her claim that Trimble is "the best read and most cultivated party leader in these islands" - the quality and content of his Nobel acceptance speech gave little indication of those qualities, but does it matter? What has to be asked is: Why is a professional journalist so committed to promoting the virtues of unionism and pointing out the sins of nationalists? The revelation that she has overcome her "bigotry about Ulster Protestants" is good news, but does her conversion require her to attack nationalists and is her new found partiality confined to members of the UUP? -Yours, etc., Douglas Bain,
Newcastle, Co Wicklow.